emperor.
Whatever restraints of age, or forms, or numbers, had been formerly
introduced to check the abuse of manumissions, and the too rapid
increase of vile and indigent Romans, he finally abolished; and the
spirit of his laws promoted the extinction of domestic servitude.
Yet the eastern provinces were filled, in the time of Justinian, with
multitudes of slaves, either born or purchased for the use of their
masters; and the price, from ten to seventy pieces of gold, was
determined by their age, their strength, and their education. [100] But
the hardships of this dependent state were continually diminished by the
influence of government and religion: and the pride of a subject was no
longer elated by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness of
his bondsman. [101]

[Footnote 99: See the Annales Politiques de l'Abbe de St. Pierre, tom.
i. p. 25 who dates in the year 1735. The most ancient families claim the
immemorial possession of arms and fiefs. Since the Crusades, some, the
most truly respectable, have been created by the king, for merit and
services. The recent and vulgar crowd is derived from the multitude of
venal offices without trust or dignity, which continually ennoble the
wealthy plebeians.]

[Footnote 9911: Since the time of Gibbon, the House of Peers has been
more than doubled: it is above 400, exclusive of the spiritual peers--a
wise policy to increase the patrician order in proportion to the general
increase of the nation.--M.]

[Footnote 100: If the option of a slave was bequeathed to several
legatees, they drew lots, and the losers were entitled to their share
of his value; ten pieces of gold for a common servant or maid under ten
years: if above that age, twenty; if they knew a trade, thirty; notaries
or writers, fifty; midwives or physicians, sixty; eunuchs under ten
years, thirty pieces; above, fifty; if tradesmen, seventy, (Cod. l. vi.
tit. xliii. leg. 3.) These legal prices are generally below those of the
market.]

[Footnote 101: For the state of slaves and freedmen, see Institutes, l.
i. tit. iii.--viii. l. ii. tit. ix. l. iii. tit. viii. ix. Pandects or
Digest, l. i. tit. v. vi. l. xxxviii. tit. i.--iv., and the whole of
the xlth book. Code, l. vi. tit. iv. v. l. vii. tit. i.--xxiii. Be it
henceforward understood that, with the original text of the Institutes
and Pandects, the correspondent articles in the Antiquities and Elements
of Heineccius are implicitly quoted; and with the x