enjoy the scanty privileges of freemen.[1] Many of the most devoted Druids doubtless fled to remote places, and exercised their arts in secret, in order to maintain a precarious living; so that the sound of the anvil in caves and forest fastnesses, would alone denote the dwelling-place of those Druid priests, who had become fugitives to avoid the degradation of slavery. The Druidical monopoly in the arts was abolished by the Romans, who established large manufactories of arms in eight different parts of Gaul, and in them the slaves fabricated weapons for their conquerors. When these bondsmen contrived to obtain their liberty, they then worked on their own account, and with the trading class formed a bourgeoisie who dwelt in the towns; but they were so heavily taxed and kept under that they never attained any position.[2] Only the nobles who had given in
- ↑ Megnin. 'The freemen were a very numerous class in Gaul, who derived their origin from the various nations against which the Romans had carried their arms. And the most numerous class at the time of the invasion of the barbarians was that of the slaves. . . . All the Gauls invested with the title of citizen had to renounce Druidism. The edicts of Augustus proscribed it, and the other Celtic notions, together with the language, were consigned to the lower classes . . . . The freedmen were in possession of nearly all the arts and handicrafts, and they laboured at them unceasingly; but they enjoyed no consideration or authority, and had to submit to vexatious laws.'—Sismondi. Hist. des Françis, vol. i. pp. 6, 58, 104.
- ↑ The tradespeople and artisans were responsible for the industrial impost, as the Curials were for the land-tax. An iron hand stifled free trade and prevented its competing with slave labour, which was devoted to the imperial exchequer. . . . . This oppression gave rise to such a degree of despair, that they abandoned their homes to live in the forests and deserts with the Bagauds and fugitive slaves.'—H. Martin. Hist. de France, p. 327.
