ives, he ceases to be master of his estate,
and sinks into the condition of a serf of the revenue officer, or of the
farmer of the land revenue. It is true, that the government tax only
amounts to a tenth of the gross produce of the soil; but, in virtue of
this right to a tenth, government assumes the entire direction of all
the agricultural operations relating to the crops, and the cultivator's
nine-tenths (for it is really a misnomer to call him proprietor) become
a mere adjunct of the government tenth.

Many of our readers, who are unacquainted with Eastern life, may suppose
that we colour our picture too strongly. In order, therefore, to divest
our statement of all ornament, we shall describe the whole of the events
of an agricultural year. Our classic readers will then comprehend
practically how the vulture could feast on the perpetually growing heart
of Prometheus--why Tantalus tempted the gods by murdering Pelops--and
they will see that the calamities of the Theban race are an allegorical
representation of the inevitable fate which awaits a people groaning
under the system of taxation now in force in Greece.

The tenths in Greece are usually farmed to speculators, and, as the
collection is a matter of difficulty, extraordinary powers are conferred
on the farmers; hence it happens, that the social position of the
cultivators and the farmers is one of constant hostility. If the
cultivator has it in his power, he cheats the farmer of the revenue,
and if the farmer is able to do so he cheats the cultivator. The result
is, that probably not one individual in the Greek kingdom really pays
the exact tenth of the produce of his land. A few of the most active
rogues contrive to cheat the farmers of the revenue; but these
gentlemen, in virtue of the great powers with which the law invests
them, contrive to cheat the greater part of the proprietors. As soon as
the grain is ripe, the cultivator is compelled to address himself to the
tax-farmer for permission to cut his crop; but as the farmer must keep a
very sharp look-out after his interest, he only grants such permissions
as accord with the arrangements he may have established for watching the
cultivators at the smallest possible expense to himself, making the
over-ripeness of the crop of the majority a very secondary
consideration. It happens, consequently, that in Greece two-thirds of
the grain are not gathered until it is over-ripe, and the loss is
consequently very g