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140 ANCIENT GREECE. [CHAP, x.belonged partly the charge of the public festivals and shows,banquets and bands of music connected with them ; andpartly, at least In Athens, and probably in other maritimetowns, the fitting out of the galleys.The first class of theseexpenses, was by its nature a permanent one and;the otherwas almost, though not perfectlyso.They were borne bythe citizens in rotation ;and those who were free one year,were obliged to defray them the next. But they, especiallythe first, w r ere the more oppressive, as they were not fixedat any certain amount but j depended not merely on thewants of the state, but the pride of him who supplied them.Taxes on property are attended with one great difficulty,that they cannot be apportioned out without a knowledgeof the fortunes of each contributor. But they depend alsomore than any other on correctness of moral sentiment andon public spirit.Where these exist, (and they can no wheremore prevail than in such civil communities as the Grecianstates,) there is no need of returns on the part of those whoare to be taxed, nor of any inquisition on the partof thestate. Confidence is reposed in the conscience of the contributor ;and examples may be found in history, of statesin which even a suspicion of any insincerity was almost unheard of. 1 In the Grecian cities, at least in Athens, verysevere measures were in the later periods made use ofagainst those, who were suspected of concealing the truestate of their fortunes, or whom it was desired to vex inthat manner. They could be compelled to exchange theirproperty for the sum at which 2they had estimated it. Butin better times, such measures, though perhaps permitted,seem never to have been usual. A division was made intoclasses according to the income such as had been estab;lished in Athens, by the regulations of Solon. These classespresupposed an estimate of 3property but whether this;was made in the Grecian cities as accurately as the census ofthe Romans, is a question which we must leave undecided.*1As in several of the late German imperial towns. The author is acquainted with one, in which the contributions were thrown into a box, unexamined;and yet the amount of the whole was previously known, with,almost perfect exactness.2The avTt$6aei. See, on this subject, the speech of Isocrates, Op. p. 312, etc.3ripwa, Bemosth. in Aphob. Orat. i. Op. ii. p. 3, etc.* In some of the cities, great accuracy seems to have prevailed in this