276 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



denomination, or in whatever way employed. Thefe flaves, I am 

 perfuaded, had children, and increafed and multiplied, as well as the 

 Villani and the Bordarit did, and as the flaves among the Greeks 

 and Romans did ; and in this way England muft have been full of 

 people under the feudal government introduced by William the 

 Conqueror, and much more populous than it is now. 



This may fuffice with regard to the population of England in an- 

 tient times j and we are now to inquire what the fl;ate of its popula- 

 tion is at prefent, and whether we be increafnig or decreafing in 

 numbers. This I hold to be a qneftion of the greateft importance, 

 and fuch as ought to be a principal objedt of the attention of our 

 minifters and legiOators ; for, as we carry on trade all over the world, 

 and, for [hat purpofe, have fo many foreign fettlements, which muft 

 be maintained, even in time of peace, at a very great expencc of 

 men ; — and when the wars in which we are engi'.gcd, very often on 

 account of trade, and carried on, like the prefent war with France, 

 by fea and land, in Europe, Afia, Africa, and America, are fo ex- 

 ceedingly defl:ru£tive ; — and conlidering, too, that the arts, which we 

 exercife at home in time of peace, are fome of them attended with 

 a great wafte of men, it is evident that the population muft be very 

 great to fupport fuch a fyftem of policy. It is, therefore, a? 1 have 

 faid, a queftion of the utmoft importance, to conlider whether the 

 numbers of people in Britain, and paiticularly in England, of which 

 I am now fpeaking, are increafing or decreafing. 



On this fubje^l two very different opinions have been puMlfhed ; 

 one the opinion of a clergyman ol the name of f^Iowlet, wno ti.ain- 

 tains, that from the year 1740 down tt> 1788, when he publilhed 

 his book, the people of t ngland have increai'ed from five millions, 

 which was their number in 1740, to ten millions,w!nch was their num- 

 ber in 1788 J that is, they have doubled their number in the fpace of 



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