ime under the pressure of taxation, and struggled hard to
remove it. Rome lightened their burden; but the fiscal system of the
metropolis imperceptibly took root in all the Roman provinces. There was
an arbitrary personal tax, called the poll tax, and a land tax which was
named _cens_, calculated according to the area of the holding. Besides
these, there were taxes on articles of consumption, on salt, on the import
and export of all articles of merchandise, on sales by auction; also on
marriages, on burials, and on houses. There were also legacy and
succession duties, and taxes on slaves, according to their number. Tolls
on highways were also created; and the treasury went so far as to tax the
hearth. Hence the origin of the name, _feu_, which was afterwards applied
to each household or family group assembled in the same house or sitting
before the same fire. A number of other taxes sprung up, called
_sordides_, from which the nobility and the government functionaries were
exempt.

This ruinous system of taxation, rendered still more insupportable by the
exactions of the proconsuls, and the violence of their subordinates, went
on increasing down to the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. The Middle
Ages gave birth to a new order of things. The municipal administration,
composed in great part of Gallo-Roman citizens, did not perceptibly
deviate from the customs established for five centuries, but each invading
nation by degrees introduced new habits and ideas into the countries they
subdued. The Germans and Franks, having become masters of part of Gaul,
established themselves on the lands which they had divided between them.
The great domains, with their revenues which had belonged to the emperors,
naturally became the property of the barbarian chiefs, and served to
defray the expenses of their houses or their courts. These chiefs, at each
general assembly of the _Leudes_, or great vassals, received presents of
money, of arms, of horses, and of various objects of home or of foreign
manufacture. For a long time these gifts were voluntary. The territorial
fief, which was given to those soldlers who had deserved it by their
military services, involved from the holders a personal service to the
King. They had to attend him on his journeys, to follow him to war, and to
defend him under all circumstances. The fief was entirely exempt from
taxes. Many misdeeds--even robberies and other crimes, which were
ordinarily punishable