EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 399 
Some modern travellers appear to me to have miftaken the 
nature of the gradual depopulation of the Eaft. The villages 
in general are fo much deferted, that, in the neighbourhood of 
Aleppo for inftance, where w^ithin the prefent century flood 
three hundred villages, there now remain no more than ten or 
twelve. Yet, this depopulation of the villages fwells the 
cities and towns, not indeed in the fame proportion, but ftill 
with a rifmg tide. The caufes feem to be, i. In the cities the 
modes of gaining a livelihood are more multifarious, and fmall 
or no capital is required, whereas in agriculture it is indifpenf- 
able. 2. In the cities the property is not tangible, fo to 
fpeak; it is veiled from the eye of government, fo as to be fafe 
from the exceflive exaftions impofed on the peafants, whofe 
property is of the moft unweildy and felf-apparent defcription. 
The peafantry, both in Syria and Egypt, are not V'lllant^ but 
as free as any clafs of men ; and it happens unfortunately, that 
even a good governor cannot fufficiently prote£b them, for he 
muft either refign, or pay the ufual tributes at the Porte. 
Money he muft have, and the modern minifterial arts, of div- 
ing into the moft fecret recelTes of property, being there un- 
known, he of courfe taxes that which is moft apparent, and the 
moft difiicult to remove. 
Yet the diftin£lion between a good and a bad governor is, 
even here, fufficiently felt ; the population and commerce of 
Damafcus being on the increafe, by the juftice and equity of 
the prefent Paftia ; whereas, both had been materially injured 
by the violence of Jezzar» 
At 
