tax on inheritances, it has
been shown, was at first five, afterwards ten _per cent_; and the
land-tax was ten _per cent_ on the produce. The former tax of ten _per
cent_ on successions, is the present legacy-tax on movable succession to
persons not related to the deceased, in England; and ten _per cent_ on
the produce, is the tithe, and no more than the tithe, which has so long
existed in the European monarchies, and even when coexisting with many
other and more oppressive burdens, has nowhere proved fatal to industry.
Income of every sort paid ten _per cent_ in Great Britain during the
war--the land paid the tithe and poor's-rate in addition--and the other
taxes yielded a sum four times as great; yet industry of every kind
flourished to an extraordinary degree during that struggle. Ever since
the termination of the Revolution, the land-tax in France has been far
heavier than it was in Rome, varying, according to the _Cadastre_, or
valuation, from fifteen to twenty-five _per cent_; but yet it is well
known public wealth and agricultural produce have increased in an
extraordinary degree during that period. It was not, therefore, the
weight of the impositions, but the simultaneous circumstances, which
rendered the northern provinces of the empire _unable to bear them_,
which was the real cause of the ruin of its industry.

3. In the _third_ place, whether the magnitude of the naval and military
establishments, or the absolute amount of its public revenue, is taken
into consideration, it is equally apparent that the Roman empire was at
first not only noways burdened with heavy, but was blessed with
_singularly light_ government impositions. Gibbon states the population
of the whole empire, in the time of Augustus, at 120,000,000, or about
half of what all Europe, to the westward of the Ural mountains, now
contains; and its naval and military establishments amounted to 450,000
armed men--"a force," says the historian, "which, formidable as it may
seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last century, (Louis XIV.)
_whose kingdom was confined within a single province of the Roman
empire_."[39] Compared with the military and naval forces of the
European powers in time of peace, this must seem a most moderate public
establishment. France, in the time of Napoleon, with 42,000,000
inhabitants, had 850,000 regular soldiers in arms, besides 100,000
sailors; and Great Britain, in its European dominions alone, with a
population of 18