[ 49 J 
a matter which I have not at prefent fufficient materials to 
determine. Upon the whole, thefe returns of population exceed 
the returns in the paper; but in my opinion we fhould be 
nearer the truth by forming our conjectures upon the paper 
alone, than by adding thefe to them. 
To: ‘acquire: complete knowledge upon the fubjeCt requires 
more affiftance than I-can expe& from thofe officers who are 
concerned inthe colleétion of hearth-money. The office of a 
tax-gatherer is not popular, and he has not the fame facility of 
_ acquiring information which the gentlemen of the country or the 
perfons employed by them would have, if fome’of them fhould 
think proper to affift in the enquiry, and to return lifts of the 
number of perfons contained in the houfes of their refpetive 
neighbourhoods. To the hearth-money colleétor the people fre- 
quently refufe an an{wer. The wealthy, or their fervants, often 
think the queflion impertinent, and the poor often fufpea that 
it is afked with fome bad defign. From careleffnefs, and from 
fufpicion, fome ‘of the inhabitants are frequently forgotten in 
the enumeration. I cannot fay that in any place where I have 
checked the returns by a partial return made by other officers, I 
have found the numbers to have been exaggerated. In a country 
where the local population varies fo much in the different parts 
of the fame county, it feems to me impoffible to arrive at any 
thing like accuracy, unlefs we fhall be able to obtain returns 
- from different parts of the fixteen counties where the popula- 
tion has not yet been taken. Should they fall fhort of the returns 
I have received, perhaps the population of the kingdom may fill 
be eftimated at above four millions. The inhabitants of 30,000 
¥ ~ houfes 
