Ch. x. Of the Checks to Population, 8$c. 181 



without the name, produce all the effects of an 

 augmentation.* In Syria, according to Volney, 

 having the greatest part of the land at their dis- 

 posal, they clog their concessions with burden- 

 some conditions, and exact the half, and sometimes 

 even two-thirds, of the crop. When the harvest 

 .is over, they cavil about losses, and as they have 

 the power in their hands, they carry off what they 

 think proper. If the season fail, they still exact the 

 same sum, and expose every thing that the poor 

 peasant possesses to sale. To these constant op- 

 pressions are added a thousand accidental extor- 

 tions. Sometimes a whole village is laid under 

 contribution for some real or imaginary offence. 

 Arbitrary presents are exacted on the accession 

 of each governor ; grass, barley and straw are de- 

 manded for his horses ; and commissions are mul- 

 tiplied, that the soldiers who carry the orders may 

 live upon the starving peasants, whom they treat 

 with the most brutal insolence and injustice.! 



The consequence of these depredations is that 

 the poorer class of inhabitants, ruined, and unable 

 any longer to pay the miri, become a burden to 

 the village, or fly into the cities ; but the miri is 

 unalterable, and the sum to be levied must be 

 found somewhere. The portion of those who are 

 thus driven from their homes falls on the remain- 

 ing inhabitants, whose burden, though at first 

 light, now becomes insupportable. If they should 



* Voy. de Volney, torn. ii. c. xxxvii. p. 373. 

 I Id. p. 374. 



