[429] Decadence. (Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture.) By the Right Hon. A.J. Balfour, 1908, p. 8.
[430] See above, pp. 23-24. On the whole question see the very full survey of W.R. Patterson, The Nemesis of Nations, 1907, p. 265 sq.
[431] Gibbon's generalisation (end of ch. 10) as to a "diminution of the human species" throughout the Empire is confessedly founded on very imperfect evidence, applying only to Alexandria, and very doubtful even at that point.
[432] History, vol. v (The Provinces). Cp. Merivale, General History, p. 682.
[433] See Gibbon, ch. 31, end. On Gibbon's and Guizot's interpretation of the scheme, see Prof. Bury's note on Gibbon, in loc.
[434] Lectures and Essays, 1870: Lecture on "Roman Imperialism," p. 54.
[435] Ch. 10, end.
[436] Essay cited, p. 56.
[437] Prof. Bury (note to Gibbon in his ed. i, 281) cites the debased silver coinage as a proof of the "distress of the Empire" and the "bankruptcy of the Government." This is an unwarranted inference. See above, p. 80.
[438] Cp. Gibbon, ch. 13, Bohn ed. i, 427-28; Merivale, General History, pp. 572-74. Bagaudae seem to have recruited the army of Julian. (Ed. note on Gibbon, as cited, ii, 474.)