I 79 1* POPULATION IK N. AMERICA. 243 



tlie whole annals of ciefpotifm, we fliall not perhaps 

 find (o ftrange an example of ruinous and abfurd opr 

 preflion. 



rs-, t POCOCCRANTE. 



Oclober i , 1 79 1 . 



[ The extraBs luill I: given In aj'i:::e!d'mg number ?\' 



[Has not this ingenious correfpondent, in fom? of hfs foregoing re- 

 marks, given his imsgination rather too loofe a rein ? This will, 

 perhaps, be heft fcen by following out his calculations, p. 240. a little 

 farther. — If, inftead of ftopping at the end of on^ century, he had 

 purfued his mode of calculating to the end ofthefecond, third, or 

 fouith centuries, the rcfult would have been fucK as to makt him 

 fufpeift, at leaft, that there muft be fome fallacy in hh mode of cal- 

 culation. By purfuing this calculation till the laft mentioned period, 

 it will appear that America would then be poffeiTed of a population of 

 ■ no lefsthan 2,387,968,000,000 cf fouls, which is not much lefs than 

 three rhoufand times more than the whole globe has ever been cal,- 

 culated to contain. 



Before an hypothefisfo repugnant to the unlverfal experience of man- 

 kind in all other cafes fhould have been affunr.d, care Ihould 

 have been taken that no miftake ct.u!d have taken place with regard 

 to the principal favft, which yet requires to be proved. If indeed it 

 fliould be found, (a thing not highly probable,) that in fuch an ex- 

 tenfive region the population had been doubled in eight or ten years, 

 or even 15 or so, every perfen muft be fenfible that this could only 

 have happened in confequence of a very copious acceflion of ftrangers 

 from other parts of the globe ; for no mortal will entertain fo wild an 

 idea, as that it could have happened in the eourfe of natural genera- 

 tion ;; — but if European nations are at prefent fo blind as to drive 

 away their inhabitants, that fourcemuft foonbc dried up, from a de- 

 itSi of people ; fo that unlefs men fpring up out of the ground, as in 

 the days of Cadmus, or like mice on the borders of the Nile, nothing 

 like what is here fuppofed could polTibly take place. Before all this 

 can happen, our corrifpondcnt muft fujipofe another miracle of great- 

 er magnitude ftill, which is, that fu'.h immenfc millions of millions 

 of people cancoutinuc to live free fi-onx corruption, vice, wars, and 

 devaftations. 



Pn thcfe accounts, therefore, though a ver)' great deduflion muft 

 be made from the amount of the fuppofed population of the Ameri- 

 can States, at any future period, yet there can be no doubt of the juft- 

 ncfs of the poiition, that if it does incrtafe, its benefits as a market for 

 European commodities will augment in proportion as tiiat popula- 

 tion increafes ; and that of eourfe, if we take care to increafe our 

 owm population, the employment of our people will be thereby a«o'- 

 mcnted, and the ftrciigr.h of the nation, and the amount of its reve- 

 nue, proportionally ciicrcafed] Edit. 



H h 2 



