104 STATE OF BRITAIN 



was one of the reasons of the general state of 

 warfare in which the Britons were found by 

 the Romans.'* 



It is not easy to conceive a system more likely 

 to raise up a great population than the one here 

 described. It is well known, that dividing land 

 thus among numerous occupants, is extremely 

 favourable to an increase of the number of human 

 beings to the utmost limit of subsistence. Four 

 acres we find were considered sufficient for a 

 stranger, and on the increase of a family, neces- 

 sity would frequently induce the natives to be 

 content with the same extent. But taking the 

 eight acres as an average of the quantity for one 

 family, throughout the country, and supposing 

 there to be four and a-half persons to each family, 

 and we shall have more than one human being to 

 every two acres of land. As the number of acres 

 capable of cultivation in the island is about forty 

 millions, this would give a population of twenty 

 millions, being nearly double the number return- 

 ed in the census of 1801, which was 10,942,611. 



* Gildas says, that when the Britons were at peace, their lands 

 produced abundance of grain. One of their laws prohibits plough- 

 ing with horses, mares, or cows, (oxen only were to be used.) 

 Six or eight persons formed themselves into a society for fitting 

 out a plough. Eighty-six laws were made to protect and regulate 

 agriculture. — See Leges ff^allicae, page 28 — 298. 



