465 



C. EXTRACTS FROM MODERN BOOKS, 

 (i) Hume, Essay xi, Of the populousness of antient nations. 



We must now consider what disadvantages the antients lay under with 

 regard to populousness, and what checks they received from their political 

 maxims and institutions. There are commonly compensations in every human 

 condition; and tho' these compensations be not always perfectly equal, yet 

 they serve, at least, to restrain the prevailing principle. To compare them and 

 estimate their influence, is indeed very difficult, even where they take place in 

 the same age, and in neighbouring countries : But where several ages have in- 

 tervened, and only scattered lights are afforded us by antient authors; what 

 can we do but amuse ourselves by talking, pro and con, on an interesting 

 subject, and thereby correcting all hasty and violent determinations? 



MODERN ITALIAN CONDITIONS. 

 (2) Bolton King and Thomas Okey, Italy today. 



In Italy today, Messrs Bolton King and Thomas Okey furnish a most 

 interesting collection of facts relative to Italian rural conditions. The extent 

 to which the phenomena of antiquity reappear in the details of this careful 

 treatise is most striking. Italy being the central land of my inquiry, and con- 

 vinced as I am that the great variety of local conditions is even now not suffi- 

 ciently recognized in Roman Histories, this excellent book is of peculiar value. 

 In the course of (say) fifteen centuries Italy and her people have passed through 

 strange vicissitudes, not merely political : a great change has taken place in the 

 range of agricultural products : yet old phenomena of rural life meet the inquirer 

 at every turn. Surely this cannot be dismissed lightly as a casual coincidence. 

 I cannot find room to set out the resemblances in detail, so I append a short 

 table of reference to passages in the book that have impressed me most. 

 Supplementary to this, as a vivid illustration of conditions in a mountain district, 

 the first three chapters of In the Abruzzi, by Anne Macdonell, are decidedly 

 helpful. For instance, it appears that the old migratory pasturage still existed 

 in full force down to quite recent times, but the late conversion of much 

 Apulian lowland from pasture to tillage has seriously affected the position of 

 the highland shepherds by reducing the area available for winter grazing. The 

 chapter on brigandage has also some instructive passages. 



REFERENCES TO Italy today. 



Peasant contrasted with wage-earner, pp 64-6, 72, 74, 126, 166-8, 171-2, 

 175-6, 200, 312, and Index under mezzaiuoli and peasants. Agricultural classes, 

 pp 164-6. Partiaries, pp 168, 173. Emphyteusis, p 173. Improvements, 

 p 173. Farming through steward, pp 174-5. Tenancies, pp 168-74, and 

 Index under peasants. Rents in kind, p 171. Debt of various classes, pp 

 182-4, 366, 376. Taxes, p 140. Gangs of labourers, pp 166, 376. Wages, 

 pp 126, 128, 168, 174, 366, 369-71. Food in wage, p 370. Emigration, pp 

 37 1? 396. Self-help in rural districts, pp 184-6, 376. Charities, pp 220 foil, 

 379 foil. Socialists and Peasantry, pp 64-6, 170, 172, cf 71-2. 



H. A. 30 



