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CHAP. IV.

(GOVERNMENT WORKING

water from the mines, and the machines and im-plements for extracting what could not be keptout, were all contrived to answer temporary pur-poses commensurate with the length of the periodfor which they were let to farm. To preventthis premature exhaustion, in some instancesthe censor limited the number of slaves to beemployed, and shortened the term of the leases ;but these regulations seem either to have beenevaded or at least ineffectual.

During the continuance of the republic, asthe mines did not improve in productiveness,they gradually deteriorated, but so slowly thattheir retrocession was not very striking tillHome fell under a despotism, and a new stateof things with new institutions roused attention,and directed it to the declining state of that de-partment.

It is not clear under which of the emperorsthe alterations were made ; but soon after theabolition of the republic, the mines were alltaken from the farmers, and the administrationof them intrusted to officers of different ranks,who, upon a regular system, conducted theworking of them for the sole benefit of the em-peror. By this change the subterraneous workswere more substantially and durably executed,and the exhaustion of the mines did not advanceat so rapid a pace as before. But the expendi-ture was increased without a correspondent in-