re, containing 1,200,000 inhabitants, or considerably more than
Paris at this time. It was not slavery, therefore, which ruined Italian
cultivation; for the whole pasture cultivation which yielded such
immense profits was conducted by slaves. It was the Lybian and Egyptian
harvests, freely imported into the Tiber, which occasioned the ruin of
agriculture in the Latian plains; and, with the consequent destruction
of the race of rural freemen, brought on the ruin of the empire. But
this importation could not injure pasturage; for cattle Africa had none,
and therefore estates in grass still continued to yield great returns.

The second circumstance worthy of notice in this inquiry is, that the
cause of the present desolation of the Campagna, whatever it is, is
something which is _peculiar to that district_, and has continued to act
with as great force in _modern_ as in ancient times. It is historically
known, indeed, that the sanguinary contests of the rival houses of
Orsini and Colonna, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, produced
the most dreadful ravages in the Campagna, and extinguished, for the
time at least, any attempts to reclaim or restore to cultivation this
desolate region. But many centuries have elapsed since this desolating
warfare has entirely ceased; and under the shelter of peace and
tranquillity, agricultural industry in other parts of Italy has
flourished to such a degree as to render it the garden of the world:
witness the rich plain of Lombardy, the incomparable terrace cultivation
of the Tuscan hills, the triple harvests of the Terra di Lavoro, near
Naples. The desolation of the Campagna, therefore, must have been owing
to some causes peculiar to the Roman States, or rather to that part of
those states which adjoins the city of Rome; for in other parts of the
ecclesiastical territories, particularly in the vicinity of Ancona, and
the slope of the Apennines towards Bologna, agriculture is in the most
flourishing state. The hills and declivities are there cut out into
terraces, and cultivated with garden husbandry in as perfect style as in
the mountains of Tuscany. The marches of Ancona contain 426,222
inhabitants, spread over 2111 square miles, which is about 200 to the
square mile; but, considering how large a part of the territory is
barren rock, the proportion on the fertile parts is about 300 to the
square mile, while the average of England is only 260. The soil is
cultivated to the depth of tw