Page:The Slippery Slope.djvu/25

 in later times." In Rome the Annona grew from cheap corn to free corn, from free corn only to free corn, bacon, and oil, and was extended from a section of the population to practically all the poorer classes. And then the crash came. When Athens fell upon evil days the Theoric Fund had to be diverted to military purposes. When the same happened to Rome, and Sicily and Carthage were lost to the Empire, the treasury was exhausted, and the unhappy citizens, destitute of all power of self-maintenance, were thrown back upon voluntary charity and the Church. During the siege by Alaric, "the daily allowance of bread was reduced to one half, to one third, to nothing, and the price of corn continued to rise. The poorer citizens solicited the precarious charity of the rich, and for a while the public misery was alleviated by the humanity of the Empress Læta, who consecrated her princely revenue to the use of the indigent" (Gibbon, cap. xxxi.). The distributions of corn were finally discontinued after Theodoric, and the suffering of the people, enervated by centuries of pauperism, is a matter of history.

From this point of view we stand perhaps in a worse position even than Rome itself. The Roman benevolences were levied upon conquered nations ; our own are levied upon the industry of the people themselves, and it is hardly possible to doubt that if our expenditure continues to increase at its present rate we shall some day find ourselves face to face with an empty treasury and a ruined industry. Lord Morley, speaking at Newcastle some years ago, put it thus: "Depend upon it," he said, "that the burden of taxation, however spread, however disguised, falls in the long run most heavily upon the shoulders of the working man," and a hard-headed, north-country audience greeted the remark with cheers. At the present