Juvenal was not alone in his complaint. Horace had said somewhat the same thing before. The Satirists had certainly ample opportunities of observing the facts. When Rome was newly founded it was desirable and even necessary to encourage immigration, because citizens and soldiers were sorely needed to defend the infant State. But when Rome had advanced to the height of her Imperial power, the immense influx of foreigners attracted to the Eternal City by her wealth and by her luxury, was most calamitous. The native population of Rome were reduced to permanent pauperism, or were driven away to the colonies. The yeomanry of Italy disappeared; they took service in the Legions, and were sent away to distant settlements, their place in Rome being taken by large bodies of imported slaves, who brought with them all the habits and vices generated by long centuries of oppression and wrong. "The salvation of a country lies in its middle class." Such was the wise _dictum_ of Aristotle; but in the latter days of the Roman Empire the middle class was wanting. How fatal was this, is clearly seen by the different powers of resistance that Rome exhibited at different periods of her history. Under the Republic, when the middle class was dominant, though Italy was several times invaded, the native population always proved too strong for the invaders. When under the latter days of the Empire the middle class was wanting, and there was nothing but fabulous wealth and prodigal luxury on the one hand, and abject poverty and consequent misery on the other, the heart of the State became corrupt; and as soon as the Barbarians had broken through the cordon of Legions at the frontier, the mighty Roman Empire sank to rise no more. Historical parallels are often misleading, and this analogy, like other analogies, may of course be carried too far; but it is in some respects a close one. When Rome in the height of her Imperial splendour welcomed all nationalities who ministered to her profligacy and luxury, it was a sign of the canker which in time ate away the heart of the Empire. So too, England in the Victorian era--an era of prosperity unequalled even by Imperial Rome--throws open wide her arms to receive the destitute, the criminal, and the worthless of other lands, heedless of the injury which the influx of such a class must work upon her own community, and forgetful that the first duty of the State is towards its own people.