Rome the Tributum, was fuperfeded by the depofit of treasure placed at the bank upon the conqueft of Macedonia: the reft continued as branches of the revenue, collected as the vectigal domesti cum. Befides thefe, the Roman government derived a revenue from a landed property, which it held as the demefnes of the ftate. As the Romans conquered the nations of Italy, and of the world, they generally referved fome of the arable and pasture, and other cultivated lands, to be held by the government as the landed eftate of the Republic, the produce or profits of which were the public revenue. The government let them to farmers for a certain ftipulated rent; when fo let, they were called ftipendarii: it let the arable to Aratores, tillage hufbandmen, and received tithes † of the produce in kind, or in fuch manner, and by fach compofition, as the Aratores could make with the Tithingmen, or Decumani. Thefe lands were called Agri Decumani. Oil and wine alfo, as the produce of the oliveyard and vineyard, paid a vectigal in a given proportion. I doubt whether I may call it a tithe, as I find that hort-yards and gardens paid but a fifth. There was also, even in the Decuna, some distinction made between the great and fmall corn or grain; the government also, to fecure its fupplies in the re frumentaria, made further conditions of preemption at an affized price. The revenue of the Pascua, the pasture land, was raised by taking in cattle to graze, adjoisted at a certain Locatio, or contract rate, per head, for the grazing. The lifts taken by the publicani of the number of cattle, &c. adjoifted by the graziers, the paftores, was called the Scriptura, whence this branch of revenue took this name. These were the modes of raifing the ordinary, revenue from the landed demefnes of the ftate; but the government, in cafes of emergent difficulty, had extraordinary ways and means of raising money upon the capital by fale of them, with equity of redemption, when the government could repay the money. The revenues § raifed upon the provinces in general was a vectigal certum impofitum, quod ftipendarium dicitur; on the contrary, omnis * Cicero in his Offices, Lib. II. § 22. mentions this of the Tributum. But when Mr. Gibbon fays, chap. vi. "that the Roman people was for ever delivered from the weight of taxes," he announces as of the genus, what Cicero only faid of that fpecies the Tributum. When the mutinous fpirit of the people, as the crifis of the breaking up of the republic, called for release from the portoria, and to have a divifion of the Ager Campanus, Cicero, writing a long letter to Atticus on the fubject (Lib. II. Ep. 16.) fays, Portoriis Italiæ fublatis, agro campano divifo, quod vectigal fupereft domefticum præter vicefima? The doing this was called, the Locatio Prædiorum Rufticorum, Liv. Lib. XLV. § 18. Tithes were of old a financial establishment of Sicily, under its own Kings, and I believe of many other states alfo, prior to the adop tion of them by the Romans, as one of their ways and means. § Cicero in Verrem, Actio zda. Lib. III. § 6. X 3 ager ager Siciliæ civitatum decumanus eft, with the exception of five or feven cities, which were free and bad immunity from the tithes. The mines, were another fource and branch of revenue; the government kept these in their own hands, and worked them by their flaves and convicted criminals, under the infpection of their own officers; these were called the Metalla. ; • The collection of thefe ordinary branches of the revenue were generally farmed out to companies of bankers, to Societates, or Socii Scripturæ, &c. who agreed for them at a ftipulated Locatio, or contract price, by which means the income revenue became conftant and uniform. These focietates, or companies of bankers, were also of great ufe to the government, by advancing money on loan in cafes of emergency, as will be feen. Befides the crdinary branches of revenue by the Tributum, the Vectigalia, and the Metalla, the government, in cafes of emergency, did lometimes call on the patriotifm of the people to contribute to the neceflities of the flate, in proportion to their love for their country, and to their abilities in affifting it; this, which we should name a Benevolence, was called Tributum Temerarium, quando populus in ærarium, quod habuit, detulit; a curious precedent of this in the fecond Punic war may be read in Tit. Liv. Lib. XXVI. § 36. and in Florus, Lib. IV. cap. 6. § 24, 25. Another extraordinary method of raifing the current fupply was by loan on the public credit, borrowed on fuch conditions as the government could make at the time with the Societates, or companies of farmers-general. This required an act of the fenate.' Our Author then gives us a paffage from Livy, which contains a precedent. It may be found in the 48th and 49th chapters of his 23d book. He proceeds: • The BANK, which was soon after established at the end of the Macedonian war, for ever after, while it remained facred, fuperfeded not only that branch of the ordinary revenue, raised on the citizens, called the TRIBUTUM, but alfo the neceffity of borrowing and funding. After the feizure of the treafure of the Bank by Julius Cæfar, this neceflity returned again, and in the time of Claudius one reads of fomething of the like kind. It appears, that the fpoils of the Macedonian conqueft were the first depofit on which the Bank was established. This Bank, thus once established, became A BANK OF DEPOSIT. After this, all the moveable wealth of every country, as they conquered it, was depofited as facred to the public ufe, in the bank of the Erarium, as were all furplufes of the taxes. Lucan in his Pharfalia, Lib. III. gives, in a few verfes, the heads of thofe feveral articles of depofit: Romani cenfus populi, quem Punica bella Quem dederat Perfes, quem victi præda Philippi, Cicero de Officiis, Lib. I. § 22. Omni Macedonum gaza, quæ fuit maxima, potitus eft Paulus: tantum in ærarium pecunia invexit, ut unius imperatoris.præda, finem attulit Tributorum. Quiquid Quiquid parcorum mores fervaftis avorum, The officers at the head of the adminiftration of this branch of the revenue, were the Quæftors, for a time the Prætors, and at fome periods the Ediles. The general receipt into the Ærarium by actual cafh, by bullion, or by the rationes of the provincial quæftors; the coinage; the iffue to the fervice by cah, or by aflignment in pay ment, or by impreft upon account; and the keeping of the accounts of the whole; were of their department. Whether this department in the whole, or in part, and in what parts, was conducted by a concurrent jurifdiction with (it was certainly under the control of) the fenate, is not a matter decided, at least as far as my information goes there are clearly fome matters, and were fome times, in which the fenate interpofed its authority. The vote of the fenate in the cafe of the loan above-mentioned, and the fettlement of the flipendium of Macedonia, the arrangements made in the collection of the Vectigalia and the Tributum, by a resolve of the fenate, is another. It feems that this might have been left to the executive officers; tamen in fenatu quoque agitata eft fumma confiliorum ut inchoata omnia legati ab domo ferre ad imperatores poffint †.” The actual collection of thefe revenues were by the hands of the Publicani, or of the farmers-general, in right of their locationes or contracts; and the distribution by the hands of deputy pay-mafters, civil and military.' Gov. Pownall next confiders the knowledge which the ancients poffeffed of mechanics; and the defects of their chronology He explains the fabulous hiftory of the Argonautic expedition; but, we apprehend, rather too fancifully. He then gives us a philofophic commentary on the Antidiluvian hiftory, as delivered by Mofes. This part of the work is really curious, and displays a mind caft in no common mould. He concludes the first part of his work with a flight examination of the fables, which feem, in his opinion, to veil the knowledge of the ufe of the polarity of the magnetic arrow,' among the ancients in their navigation. given, that the The first, howthe Governor The second and third Parts of this work are reader may form an opinion of the WHOLE. ever, was published alone, as the Bookfeller, very candidly informs us, was apprehenfive that a work written. on fubjects of this nature, by a perfon of no literary character,' would not be fufficiently faleable to pay the expences of publica * These are the furplufes which I refer to. + Vide T. Livium. Lib. XLV. § 18. The detail of these arrangements is worthy the a:tention of the learned Antiquary. X 4 tion. , tion. The copy was given to the Bookfeller, without expence. We shall not at prefent enter into the detail of the two remaining portions of this work. Whenever they are published, we fhall of course examine their merits. To the end of this first Part are prefixed the following papers: I. Analyfis of the Elements of Speech, as applicable to etymology, in the ftudy of Antiquities. II. A Treatife on Picture-writing, Hieroglyphic, and Elementary-writing; fhewing how the firft arofe from nature, the fecond from art; with an illuftration of the effects which thefe have had on the deviations and mutations of language. III. A Narrative of the Investigations and Difcoveries made on the Subject of the Triremes, Quadriremes, and Quinquiremes of the Ancients, by General Melvill. IV. On the ancient Chariot; the exercise of it in the Race, and the application of it to fervice in War. At the end of the book are three Plates of Hieroglyphics, and one of the Horfes of the Ancients in their harness. The Author in this work displays confiderable knowledge of the fubjects upon which he writes. His ideas are very often uncommon; but his hypothefes are generally ingenious, though fometimes a little extravagant. His ftyle is manly, but not very polifhed; and is rendered much less attractive by the frequent introduction of obfolete and unufual words, fuch as agnation, elicite, &c. From the judgment, however, which this fpecimen of the work enables us to form of the WHOLE, we feel heartily inclined to with our Author all imaginable fuccefs. In the present age, the temper of which is fo favourable to every kind of inquiry, we find more who are able to follow, than to direct the course of the huntfmen. An able guide is continually wanted, to point out the fubjects which are proper for investigation, and to reprefs the misjudging ardour, which hurries us on, without allowing time for mature deliberation. ART. V. The Moallákat, or Seven Arabian Poems, which were sufpended on the Temple at Mecca; with a Tranflation and Arguments, By William Jones, Efq. 4to. 10 s. 6d. Elmsley. O praise the learning and abilities of Sir William Jones, for fince the publication of this work he has received the honour of knighthood, is unneceffary. To criticise his Oriental labours would be deemed temerity. With his fplendid talents the literary world have been long acquainted, as they have, for feveral years paft, been favoured with the valuable fruit of his ftudies. In knowledge he has feldom been equalled, and in accuracy he has scarcely found a rival. This work, which he bequeathed to the Public before his departure for India, may justly be confidered as a performance that will add a fresh branch of laurel to his wreath. As, however, Sir William propofes to publifh a Preliminary Difcourse, and Notes on these poems, we fhall defer our extracts till the publication is completed. Of the contents of this volume, however, we will give fome account, as well as of what Sir William intends to publish in his Difcourfe. Of the feven poets, the genealogy is given, in a large plate; and the original of their poems is added for the examination of the curious and learned. The editor, in his Advertisement, expreffes a wifh, that the scholars of Leyden, Paris, and Madrid, and that the admirers of Oriental compofitions, in England and on the Continent, would transmit their remarks to his publisher, before he fends his Notes into the world. From the Difcourfe the Public may expect much information and entertainment. It will contain obfervations on the antiquity of the Arabian language and letters: an account of the dialects and characters of Himyar and Koraifh, and of the Himyarick poets. It will alfo treat of the Arabian manners, in the age which immediately preceded that of Mahomed: of the Temple at Mecca, and the Moallakát, or pieces of poetry fufpended on its walls or gate, which this volume contains. To thefe will be added, the lives of the feven poets, a critical history of their works, and an enumeration of the various copies or editions of them, which are preferved in Europe, Afia, and Africa. The Notes will exhibit authorities and reafons for the tranflation of controverted paffages. Obfcurities will be elucidated : amendments will be propofed. The reader's attention will be directed to particular beauties. Remarkable defects will be noticed. Light alfo will be thrown on the images, figures, and allufions of the Arabian poets, by citations either from writers of their own country, or from such of our European travellers, as beft illuftrate the ideas and customs of eaftern nations.' The Arabic poems are printed in English characters; a plate, however, is given of fome verfes in their original drefs. A good head of Sir William is prefixed, engraved by Hall, from a picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ART. VI. An Attempt to explain certain Paffages of Scripture generally mifunderflood. By Philalethes. 8vo. Is. 6d. Dilly. 1783. HE defign of this publication is to refcue Scripture from the abfurdities which fome enthufiafts have palmed on it, through a literal interpretation of paffages which are only figu rative and metaphorical. The |