plundered the husbandman, and culture has degenerated. The laborer,
deprived of his stock, has been unable to sow; the tax was augmented,
and he could not pay it; the bastinado has been threatened, and he
has borrowed. Money, from want of security, being locked up from
circulation, interest was therefore enormous, and the usury of the rich
has aggravated the misery of the laborer.

When excessive droughts and accidents of seasons have blasted the
harvest, the government has admitted no delay, no indulgence for the
tax; and distress bearing hard on the village, a part of its inhabitants
have taken refuge in the cities; and their burdens falling on those who
remained, has completed their ruin, and depopulated the country.

If driven to extremity by tyranny and outrage, the villages have
revolted, the pacha rejoices. He wages war on them, assails their homes,
pillages their property, carries off their stock; and when the fields
have become a desert, he exclaims:

"What care I? I leave these fields to-morrow."

The earth wanting laborers, the rain of heaven and overflowing of
torrents have stagnated in marshes; and their putrid exhalations in a
warm climate, have caused epidemics, plagues, and maladies of all sorts,
whence have flowed additional suffering, penury, and ruin.

Oh! who can enumerate all the calamities of tyrannical government?

Sometimes the pachas declare war against each other, and for their
personal quarrels the provinces of the same state are laid waste.
Sometimes, fearing their masters, they attempt independence, and draw