, and, in Ireland, where the
soil and climate are more moist, and better for cattle, flesh meat was
still cheaper, in proportion. The poverty of the people, indeed,
prevented them from living on animal food, but buttermilk, (an animal
production) and potatoes, a cheaper vegetable, are their chief
sustenance.
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Though this cause of depopulation, arising from wealth, increasing the
consumption of food, is peculiar to northern nations, yet there are
others that have a similar effect, that fall more heavily on the
inhabitants of the south.

Rest from labour is, in warm climates, a great propensity, and easily
indulged. In no northern nation could there be found so idle a set of
beings as the Lazzeroni of Naples. If the nations of the north have a
desire to indulge themselves in consuming more, those of the south have
a propensity to be idle, and produce less, the effect of which is in
nearly the same; for, whether they produce any thing or not, they must
consume something. The same listlessness and desire of rest, that
produces idleness and beggary amongst the poor, makes the rich
inclined to have a great retinue of servants, and, as those servants are
idly inclined, they serve for low wages, on condition of having but
light work to perform. Thus it is that the fertility of the soil, and the
other natural advantages are destroyed by the disposition of the
inhabitants.

It does not appear, however, that this disposition was indulged or
encouraged to any hurtful extent, until wealth had vitiated the original
manners of the inhabitants. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, all of
them performed works requiring great exertion. They encouraged
industry and arts, and became great, wealthy, and populous; but, when
once they fell to decline, the same fate attended the descendants of
them all. {116}

Of all the countries that were once great, and have fallen to decay,
Italy has retained its population the best; but, for this, there is an
evident cause to be found in the natural fertility of the country, and the
resource still drawn from foreigners, who have never ceased to visit
that once famous seat of arts and military glory.

The number of horses and of domestic animals maintained by the

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{116} After the Augustan age, the populace of Rome seem to have
degenerated with great rapidity, as the donations of corn clearly prove.
Had the tributary countries not furnished the means of providing food,