Siberia, Northern and Southern. their ease.' This proposal seems to prove that spontaneous divisions of this kind did not often take place, and that the children of the colonists might not always find an easy mode of settling themselves, and rearing up fresh families. In the flourishing colony of the Moravian brethren in Sarepta, it is said that the young people cannot marry without the consent of their priests; and that their consent is not in general granted till late. It would 2 appear, therefore, that among the obstacles to the increase of population, even in these new colonies the preventive check has its share. Population can never increase with great rapidity but when the price of common labor is very high, as in America; and from the state of society in this part of the Russian territories, and the consequent want of a proper vent for the produce of industry, this effect, which usually accompanies new colonies, and is essential to their rapid growth, does not take place in any considerable degree. CHAPTER X. Of the Checks to Population in the Turkish Do minions and Persia. IN the Asiatic parts of the Turkish dominions it will not be difficult, from the accounts of travellers, to trace the checks to population and the causes of its present decay; and as there is little difference in the manners of the Turks, whether they inhabit Europe or Asia, it will not be worth while to make them the subject of distinct consideration. The fundamental cause of the low state of population in Turkey, compared with its extent of territory, is undoubtedly the nature of the go. vernment. Its tyranny, its feebleness, its bad laws, and worse administration of them, with the consequent insecurity of property, throw such obstacles in the way of agriculture that the means of subsistence are necessarily decreasing yearly, and with them, of course, the number of people. The miri, or, general land-tax, paid to the sultan is in itself Of the checks to population in, . moderate;' but by abuses inherent in the Turkish government, the pachas and their agents have found out the means of rendering it ruinous. Though they cannot absolutely alter the impost which has been established by the sultan, they have introduced a multitude of changes, which without the name produce all the effects of an augmentation. In Syria, according to Volney, having the greatest part of the land at their disposal, they clog their concessions with burthensome conditions, and exact the half, and sometimes even two-thirds of the crop. When the harvest is over, they cavil about losses, and as they have the power in their hands, they carry off what they think proper. If the season fail they still exact the same sum, and expose every thing that the poor peasant possesses to sale. To these constant oppressions are added a thousand accidental extortions. Sometimes a whole village is laid under contribution for some real or imaginary offence. Arbitrary presents are exacted on the accession of each governor; grass, barley, and straw, are demanded for his horses; and commissions are multiplied, that the soldiers who carry the orders may live upon the 1 Voy.de Volney, tom. ii. c. xxxvii. p. 373. (3vo. 1787.) 2 Voy. de Volney, tom. ii. c. xxxvii. p. 373. (8vo. 1787.) Of the checks to population in starving peasants, whom they treat with the most brutal insolence and injustice.' The consequence of these depredations is that the poorer class of inhabitants, ruined, and unable any longer to pay the miri, become a burden to the village, or fly into the cities; but the miri is unalterable, and the sum to be levied must be found somewhere. The portion of those who are thus driven from their homes falls on the remaining inhabitants, whose burden, though at first light, now becomes insupportable. If they should be visited by two years of drought and famine, the whole village is ruined and abandoned; and the tax which it should have paid is levied on the neighboring lands. ' The same mode of proceeding takes place with regard to the tax on the Christians, which has been raised by these means from three, five, and eleven piastres, at which it was first fixed, to thirty-five and forty, which absolutely impoverishes those on whom it is levied, and obliges them to leave the country. It has been remarked that these exactions have made a rapid progress during the last Voy. de Volney, tom. ii. c. xxxvii. ↑ Id. c. xxxvii. p. 375. the Turkish dominions and Persia. forty years, from which time are dated the decline of agriculture, the depopulation of the country, and the diminution in the quantity of specie carried to Constantinople.' The peasants are every where reduced to a little flat cake of barley or dourra, onions, lentils, and water. Not to lose any part of their corn, they leave in it all sorts of wild grain, which often produces bad consequences. In the mountains of Lebanon and Nablous, in time of dearth, they gather the acorns from the oaks, which they eat after boiling or roasting them on the ashes.* 2 By a natural consequence of this misery, the art of cultivation is in the most deplorable state. The husbandman is almost without instruments, and those he has are very bad. His plough is frequently no more than the branch of a tree cut below a fork, and used without wheels. The ground is tilled by asses and cows; rarely by oxen, which would bespeak too much riches. In the districts exposed to the Arabs, as in Palestine, the countryman must sow with his musket in his hand; and scarcely does the corn turn yellow before it is reaped and concealed in sub Voy. de Volney, tom. ii. ch. xxxvii. p. 376. 2 Id. p. 377. |