The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-09-28 00:00:00

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. .
fritt.tev or itig G.tulw,from their Origiitto their mixing with
tr.anlts. and Commencrotelq of the F.t
'loathe Fly Jean 1,,e0t, al Gerteva, Professur of Hoit
and Statics, in the Acati,my tai that City.

The second part of the work of M. Picot is as
much statistical as historical, for he there sums up
the documents which have been preserved, up to the
present time, on the soil, produce, charader of the
inti;thitatits, manner*, habits, occupations, religion,
langliage, the state of literature, their comparative
advancement with those of the neighbouring na-
tions, and on the revolution made amongst them by
the conquects of the Romans arid the Franks.

• We Believe we ought here to quote a passage
which the reader will find interesting, as it will
skew what M. Picot says, respeiting the popula-
tion, the riches, the corn, commerce, sciences, and
industry of the Gauls.

" It is difficult to estimate with precision the po-
pulation of Gaul, historians not having left us suffi-
cient materials ; they only say, that Gaul was very
well i liabited, and that the women were extremely
fruitful. They also say, that Thrace was the most
populous coonny then known, except Gaul; but
they enter into very few particulars on the number
of inhabitants of each province. We must, there-
fore, endeavour to repair their negligence, by col-
leding every thing they have mid relating to the
sithjal, and deduce from these our own conclu-
sions. We shall, therefore, quote the passages im-
mediately relative to Gaul s
Diodinus, of Sicily, tells us, " That Gaul is in-
habited oy many nations, the most powerful of
which is composed of about 000,000 men, and the
weakest about 50,000;" the average number of
these is 100,000 men to each nation ; and if this
mode of- calculation be admitted, we only want to
find the number of nations in Gaul, to make out
the entire population. Unhappily, this number is
difficult to ascertain, as the accounts frequently
vary ; and it we reckonrd the divisions and subdi-
visions, they would amount to three or four hun-
dred." But it is probable, that Diodorus, of Sicily,
heard only of the principal nations, or such as were
mentioned as such by the ancient geographers. The
number of nations particularised by them was
eietty.ttine, as we see by the geography, the most
esteemed of those days ; and, if we adopt this cal-
culation, we find that the population of all Gaul
amounts to eighty-nine, multiplied by too,loo,
that is, to 8,900,000, or about 9,000,0(X) of souls.
Plutarch says, that Czsar, during the war of the
Gauls, brought into the field, at different times,
three milbons of men ; this expression, we must al-
low, is very vague to draw any inference from ;
however, it we refleß that children, tinder the age
of puberty, and women, were not comprised in the
number of fighting men mentioned by Plutarch ; if
we refled, also, that Czsar brought into the field
almost all the people of Gaul then independent,
and that neither the weak or the old men were ex-
empt from military service ; we shall find that the
three millions, we are told of by Plutarch, were
pretty nearly the number of males living in that
part of Gaul where Ca-,ar fought ; and that double
tile number makes the sum total of men .and wo-
men : to this it is tot too much m add three mil-
lions of souls for the province of the Narbonnaise,
which the Romans possessed before Czsar com-
menced his military career, and which extended to
a fourth part of the entire of Gaul, hut was 3101 so
thickly inhabited as the other three-fourths. This
calculation amounts exactly to the preceding, anti
lagives the result of nine millions of souls as the popu-
tion of Gaul.

We should obtain still more certainty, if we take
the Helvetic as the mean of our researches. The
popillation of that province. on comparing a great
number of evidences, was .:sex hundred thousand
souls. The sante part of the lielvetic at this time
contains twelve hundred thousand, which is four
times the number it then contained. In the same
proportion, the population of the entire of Gaul is
about thirty-four millions; and, &clueing the quar-
ter, which is eight millions and an half, we still
have nearly the former calculation of ancient Gaul,
sup Axing that the increase cl population through-
out Gaul has been the same as it is in the Ha.
'retie. This is a moderate m.3.lind of judging;
for we find that the Helvetic, though ;laced
in the mid latitude of Gaul, on account of its prox-
imity to Germany, and the savage manners of the
inhabitants, is less populous than the other provinces
is the same latitude, as the prlyS del Edutat and an,
4m:ream r: thus, though this part does not con-
tain more than three hundred thousand inhabitants,
yet we may believe, that the entire of Gaul con-
tained more than eight millions and a half, and that
the number of nine millions is not an exaggeration of
the popuiation at the time it was conquered byt'ziar.
We d not examine the inferences we might draw
from the population of other cantons in Gatti, be-
cause they are not so precisely ascertained, btu only
say they are about the sane. It is not surprising
that alitie.ot Gaul was less peopled than it 1:0W
because the difference is explained by the then num-
ber of Wrests, and of uncultivated lands and
marshes.

The riches of antient Gaul were those of all
savage ptople, and principally consisted of their
arms and their [mock., mhich were their most valua-
ble possessions in their e)e., and satisied al; their
wants. These they could easily transport in their
frequent emigrations, and required but little auen-
lion to teed and prc.erve. They likewise bred a
number of horses, of which they were in want to
supply their cavalry, and were fond of having them
very handsome, whatever they might cost. this
taste was the natural consequence of their military
and enterprising spirit ; and their endeavours in this
way were crowned with success, as they had the
an of introducing and naturalising to the climate
a most beautiful race of horses, which were much
superior to those of the Germans ; and throughout
Gaul a mare of a particularly fine kind was bought
at a very high price.
k To he enntmued

One of the men from the coal pits near Valen-
ciennes, whii,e yellow colour caused lately ,o much
surprise in the Ltatrtiburgh garden. died last week
iu the hospital of the medical school, Paris. What
is curious, even the colour of Use blood of these
moo is changed to yellow.