POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN GENERAL. 251 



of their produce as to have afterwards to return part for 

 seed, we see exemplified the truth that the agency which 

 ir.aintains order may cause miseries greater than the miseries 

 caused by disorder. The state of Egypt under the 



Romans, who, on the native set of officials superposed their 

 own set, and who made drafts on the country s resources not 

 for local administration only but also for imperial administra 

 tion, furnishes an instance. Beyond the regular taxes there 

 were demands for feeding and clothing the military, wherever 

 quartered. Extra calls were continually made on the people 

 for maintaining public works and subaltern agents. Men in 

 office were themselves so impoverished by exactions that 

 they &quot;assumed dishonourable employments or became the 

 slaves of persons in power.&quot; Gifts made to the government 

 were soon converted into forced contributions. And those who 

 purchased immunities from extortions found them disregarded 

 as soon as the sums asked had been received. More 



terrible still were the curses following excessive development 

 of political organization in Gaul, during the decline of the 

 Roman empire : 



&quot; So numerous were the receivers in comparison with the payers, and 

 so enormous the weight of taxation, that the labourer broke down, 

 the plains became deserts, and woods grew where the plough had 



been It were impossible to number the officials who were rained 



upon every province and town The crack of the lash and the cry 



of the tortured filled the air. The faithful slave was tortured for evi 

 dence against his master, the wife to depose against her husband, the 



son against his sire Not satisfied with the returns of the first 



enumerators, they sent a succession of others, who each swelled the 

 valuation as a proof of service done ; and so the imposts went on in- 

 creadng. Yet the number of cattle fell off, and the people died. 

 Nevertheless, the survivors had to pay the taxes of the dead.&quot; 



And how literally in this case the benefits were exceeded by 

 the mischiefs, is shown by the contemporary statement that 

 &quot; they fear the enemy less than the tax-gatherer : the truth 

 is, that they fly to the first to avoid the last. Hence the one 

 unanimous wish of the Roman populace, that it was their lot to 

 live with the barbarian/ In the same region during 



