94 On the Comparative Population of the World, 



derns, is derived confessedly from the astonishing progress which 

 has been made, in the three last centuries, by the nations oc- 

 cupying the middle regions of Europe ; particularly Great Bri- 

 tain, France, Holland, and Germany. With respect to Great 

 Britain, I should not suppose the difference to be by any means 

 so great as Mr. Hume supposes. Caesar, in speaking of the 

 maritime parts of the island, which were probably not the best 

 peopled, says, " Hominum est infinita multitudo, pecoris mag- 

 nus numerus ;" and though such general phrases are not much 

 to be relied on, yet, when used by so correct a writer as Caesar, 

 who was well acquainted with all the gradations of savage and 

 civilized life, they are not to be neglected. On the whole, how- 

 ever, I should be inclined to think that the British islands may 

 contain, at present, three times the number of people which 

 existed at the period of the Roman invasion. 



Concerning France, the balance is not near so decided, nor 

 so easily estimated. The calculations of Appian and Diodorus, 

 with respect to ancient Gaul, it may be said, lose all authority 

 by their extravagance. The former of these writers says that 

 Caesar, in the course of his wars, killed and made prisoners not 

 less than two millions of the inhabitants of that nation. When, 

 however, we reflect on the murderous effects of the Roman 

 weapons and discipline among an unwarlike people, and when we 

 consider also the enormous waste of human life, which has re- 

 cently taken place in the wars of the same country, this state- 

 ment will not appear incredible. But the evidence of Caesar 

 himself is more circumstantial and definitive. That general hav- 

 ing received an intimation that Belgia, one only of the three 

 divisions of ancient Gaul, was meditating a revolt against the 

 Roman dominion, requested from his spies an exact account of the 

 forces which the Belgians could bring into the field. The enume- 

 ration which he receives in return makes the troops of that district 

 amount to no less than to 348,000 men. On the extreme suppo- 

 sition that this calculation includes every man fit to bear arms, 

 it would show a population of nearly two milHons ; a number 

 which would not be reckoned inconsiderable for a country of 

 that extent, even in modern Europe. I mention this summary 

 more particularly, because it is one of the most precise notices, 

 on the subject of population, which is to be found in any ancient 



