Part 15

In all. Males. Females. Those under 1 years old 170,000 88,500 81,500 Those under 5 years old 820,000 413,300 406,700 Those under 10 years old 1,520,000 762,900 757,100 Those above 16 years old 3,260,000 1,578,000 1,682,000 Those above 21 years old 2,700,000 1,300,000 1,400,000 Those above 25 years old 2,400,000 1,152,000 1,248,000 Those above 60 years old 600,000 270,000 330,000 Those under 16 years old 2,240,000 Those above 16 years old 3,260,000 Total of the people 5,500,000

That the bachelors are about 28 per cent. of the whole, whereof those under twenty-five years are 25½ per cent., and those above twenty-five years are 2½ per cent.

That the maidens are about 28½ per cent. of the whole.

Whereof those under 25 years are 26½ per cent.

And those above 25 years are 2 per cent.

That the males and females in the kingdom in general are aged, one with another, 27 years and a half.

That in the kingdom in general there is near as many people living under 20 years of age as there is above 20, whereof half of the males are under 19, and one half of the females are under 21 years.

That the ages of the people, according to their several distinctions, are as follows, viz.:—

Vide Scheme C.

Having thus stated the numbers of the people, he gives a scheme of the income and expense of the several families of England, calculated for the year 1688.

SCHEME C.

At a Medium The husbands 43 years 17¼ per cent., 742 years. are aged apiece, which, makes at The wives 40 17¼ 690 The widowers 56 1½ 84 The widows 60 4½ 270 The children 12 45 540 The servants 27 10½ 284 The sojourners 35 4 140 At a medium 27½ 100 2,750

Vide Scheme D.

Mr. King’s modesty has been so far overruled as to suffer us to communicate these his excellent computations, which we can the more safely commend, having examined them very carefully, tried them by some little operations of our own upon the same subject, and compared them with the schemes of other persons, who take pleasure in the like studies.

What he says concerning the number of the people to be 5,500,000 is no positive assertion, nor shall we pretend anywhere to determine in that matter; what he lays down is by way of hypothesis, that supposing the inhabitants of England to have been, A.D. 1300, 2,860,000 heads, by the orderly series of increase allowed of by all writers they may probably be about A.D. 1700, 5,500,000 heads; but if they were A.D. 1300 either less or more, the case must proportionably alter; for as to his allowances for plagues, great mortalities, civil wars, the sea, and the plantations, they seem very reasonable, and not well to be controverted.

Upon these schemes of Mr. King we shall make several remarks, though the text deserves much a better comment.

SCHEME D.—A SCHEME OF THE INCOME AND EXPENSE OF THE SEVERAL FAMILIES OF ENGLAND, CALCULATED FOR THE YEAR 1688. {148}

Number of Families. RANKS, DEGREES, Heads per Family. TITLES, AND QUALIFICATIONS. 160 Temporal Lords 40 26 Spiritual Lords 20 800 Baronets 16 600 Knights 13 3,000 Esquires 10 12,000 Gentlemen 8 5,000 Persons in greater 8 offices and places 5,000 Persons in lesser 6 offices and places 2,000 Eminent merchants and 8 traders by sea 8,000 Lesser merchants and 6 traders by sea 10,000 Persons in the law 7 2,000 Eminent clergymen 6 8,000 Lesser clergymen 5 40,000 Freeholders of the 7 better sort 120,000 Freeholders of the 5½ lesser sort 150,000 Farmers 5 15,000 Persons in liberal 5 arts and sciences 50,000 Shopkeepers and 4½ tradesmen 60,000 Artisans and 4 handicrafts 5,000 Naval officers 4 4,000 Military officers 4 500,586 5⅓ 50,000 Common seamen 3 364,000 Labouring people and 3½ out-servants 400,000 Cottagers and paupers 3¼ 35,000 Common soldiers 2 849,000 Vagrants, as gipsies, 3¼ thieves, beggars, &c. 500,586 Increasing the wealth 5⅓ of the kingdom 849,000 Decreasing the wealth 3¼ of the kingdom 1,349,586 Net totals 4 1/13

* * * * *

Number of Persons. Yearly Income per. Family. Yearly Income in Yearly Income per. Hd. Yearly Expense per Hd. Yearly Yearly general. Increase per. Incr. in Hd. General. £ s. £ £ s. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ 6,400 3,200 0 512,000 80 0 70 0 0 10 0 0 64,000 520 1,300 0 33,800 65 0 45 0 0 20 0 0 10,400 12,800 880 0 704,000 55 0 49 0 0 6 0 0 76,800 7,800 650 0 390,000 50 0 45 0 0 5 0 0 39,000 30,000 450 0 1,200,000 45 0 41 0 0 4 0 0 120,000 96,000 280 0 2,880,000 35 0 32 0 0 3 0 0 288,000 40,000 240 0 1,200,000 30 0 26 0 0 4 0 0 160,000 30,000 120 0 600,000 20 0 17 0 0 3 0 0 90,000 16,000 400 0 800,000 50 0 37 0 0 13 0 0 208,000 48,000 198 0 1,600,000 33 0 27 0 0 6 0 0 288,000 70,000 154 0 1,540,000 22 0 18 0 0 4 0 0 280,000 12,000 72 0 144,000 12 0 10 0 0 2 0 0 24,000 40,000 50 0 400,000 10 0 9 4 0 0 16 0 32,000 280,000 91 0 3,640,000 13 0 11 15 0 1 5 0 350,000 660,000 55 0 6,600,000 10 0 9 10 0 0 10 0 330,000 750,000 42 10 6,375,000 8 10 8 5 0 0 5 0 187,500 75,000 60 0 900,000 12 0 11 0 0 1 0 0 75,000 225,000 45 0 2,250,000 10 0 9 0 0 1 0 0 225,000 240,000 38 0 2,280,000 9 10 9 0 0 0 10 0 120,000 20,000 80 0 400,000 20 0 18 0 0 2 0 0 40,000 16,000 60 0 240,000 15 0 14 0 0 1 0 0 16,000 2,675,520 68 18 34,488,800 12 18 11 15 4 1 2 8 3,023,700 Decrease. Decrease. 150,000 20 0 1,000,000 7 0 7 10 0 0 10 0 75,000 1,275,000 15 0 5,460,000 4 10 4 12 0 0 2 0 127,500 1,300,000 6 10 2,000,000 2 0 2 5 0 0 5 0 325,000 70,000 14 0 490,000 7 0 7 10 0 0 10 0 35,000 2,795,000 10 10 8,950,000 3 5 3 9 0 0 4 0 562,500 30,000 60,000 2 0 4 0 0 2 0 0 60,000 So the General Account is 2,675,520 68 18 34,488,800 12 18 11 15 4 1 2 8 3,023,700 2,825,000 10 10 9,010,000 3 3 3 7 6 0 4 6 622,500 5,500,520 32 5 43,491,800 7 18 7 9 3 0 8 9 2,401,200

The people being the first matter of power and wealth, by whose labour and industry a nation must be gainers in the balance, their increase or decrease must be carefully observed by any government that designs to thrive; that is, their increase must be promoted by good conduct and wholesome laws, and if they have been decreased by war, or any other accident, the breach is to be made up as soon as possible, for it is a maim in the body politic affecting all its parts.

Almost all countries in the world have been more or less populous, as liberty and property have been there well or ill secured. The first constitution of Rome was no ill-founded government, a kingly power limited by laws; and the people increased so fast, that, from a small beginning, in the reign of their sixth king were they able to send out an army of 80,000 men. And in the time of the commonwealth, in that invasion which the Gauls made upon Italy, not long before Hannibal came thither, they were grown so numerous, as that their troops consisted of 700,000 foot and 70,000 horse; it is true their allies were comprehended in this number, but the ordinary people fit to bear arms being mustered in Rome and Campania, amounted to 250,000 foot and 23,000 horse.

Nothing, therefore, can more contribute to the rendering England populous and strong than to have liberty upon a right footing, and our legal constitution firmly preserved. A nation may be as well called free under a limited kingship as in a commonwealth, and it is to this good form of our government that we partly owe that doubling of the people which has probably happened here in the 435 years last past. And if the ambition of some, and the mercenary temper of others, should bring us at any time to alter our constitution, and to give up our ancient rights, we shall find our numbers diminish visibly and fast. For liberty encourages procreation, and not only keeps our own inhabitants among us, but invites strangers to come and live under the shelter of our laws.

The Romans, indeed, made use of an adventitious help to enlarge their city, which was by incorporating foreign cities and nations into their commonwealth; but this way is not without its mischiefs. For the strangers in Rome by degrees had grown so numerous, and to have so great a vote in the councils, that the whole Government began to totter, and decline from its old to its new inhabitants, which Fabius the censor observing, he applied a remedy in time by reducing all the new citizens into four tribes, that being contracted into so narrow a space, they might not have so malignant an influence upon the city.

An Act of general naturalisation would likewise probably increase our numbers very fast, and repair what loss we may have suffered in our people by the late war. It is a matter that has been very warmly contended for by many good patriots; but peradventure it carries also its danger with it, which perhaps would have the less influence by this expedient, namely, if an Act of Parliament were made, that no heads of families hereafter to be naturalised for the first generation, should have votes in any of our elections. But as the case stands, it seems against the nature of right government that strangers (who may be spies, and who may have an interest opposite to that of England, and who at best ever join in one link of obsequiousness to the Ministers) should be suffered to intermeddle in that important business of sending members to Parliament. From their sons indeed there is less to fear, who by birth and nature may come to have the same interest and inclinations as the natives.

And though the expedient of Fabius Maximus, to contract the strangers into four tribes, might be reasonable where the affairs of a whole empire were transacted by magistrates chosen in one city, yet the same policy may not hold good in England; foreigners cannot influence elections here by being dispersed about in the several counties of the kingdom, where they can never come to have any considerable strength. But some time or other they may endanger the government by being suffered to remain, such vast numbers of them here in London where they inhabit altogether, at least 30,000 persons in two quarters of the town, without intermarrying with the English, or learning our language, by which means for several years to come they are in a way still to continue foreigners, and perhaps may have a foreign interest and foreign inclinations; to permit this cannot be advisable or safe. It may therefore be proper to limit any new Acts of naturalisation with such restrictions as may make the accession of strangers not dangerous to the public.

An accession of strangers, well regulated, may add to our strength and numbers; but then it must be composed of labouring men, artificers, merchants, and other rich men, and not of foreign soldiers, since such fright and drive away from a nation more people than their troops can well consist of: for if it has been ever seen that men abound most where there is most freedom (China excepted, whose climate excels all others, and where the exercise of the tyranny is mild and easy) it must follow that people will in time desert those countries whose best flower is their liberties, if those liberties are thought precarious or in danger. That foreign soldiers are dangerous to liberty, we may produce examples from all countries and all ages; but we shall instance only one, because it is eminent above all the rest.

The Carthaginians, in their wars, did very much use mercenary and foreign troops; and when the peace was made between them and the Romans, after a long dispute for the dominion of Sicily, they brought their army home to be paid and disbanded, which Gesco, their General, had the charge of embarking, who did order all his part with great dexterity and wisdom. But the State of Carthage wanting money to clear arrears, and satisfy the troops, was forced to keep them up longer than was designed. The army consisted of Gauls, Ligurians, Baleareans, and Greeks. At first they were insolent in their quarters in Carthage, and were prevailed upon to remove to Sicca, where they were to remain and expect their pay. There they grew presently corrupted with ease and pleasure, and fell into mutinies and disorder, and to making extravagant demands of pay and gratuities; and in a rage, with their arms in their hands, they marched 20,000 of them towards Carthage, encamping within fifteen miles of the city; and chose Spendius and Matho, two profligate wretches, for their leaders, and imprisoned Gesco, who was deputed to them from the commonwealth. Afterwards they caused almost all the Africans, their tributaries, to revolt; they grew in a short time to be 70,000 strong; they fought several battles with Hanno and Hamilcar Barcas. During these transactions, the mercenaries that were in garrison in Sardinia mutinied likewise, murdering their commander and all the Carthaginians; while Spendius and Matho, to render their accomplices more desperate, put Gesco to a cruel death, presuming afterwards to lay siege to Carthage itself. They met with a shock indeed at Prion, where 40,000 of them were slaughtered; but soon after this battle, in another they took one of the Carthaginian generals prisoner, whom they fixed to a cross, crucifying thirty of the principal senators round about him. Spendius and Matho were at last taken, the one crucified and the other tormented to death: but the war lasted three years and near four months with excessive cruelty; in which the State of Carthage lost several battles, and was often brought within a hair’s-breadth of utter ruin.