Chap. VII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 291 



THE inhabitants of the country, as diftinguiflied from the inha- 

 bitants of the towns, confift of three orders of men : The land- 

 holders, or proprietors of land, under whom I comprehend the no- 

 bility and gentry ; the farmers ; and, laftly, the cottagers. To begin 

 with the landholders: — I never heard it difpu^ed, that the number of 

 them is very much diminifhed. They were, in more antient times, 

 very numerous in England : For the country was full of yeomen, or 

 fmall proprietors of land, who made the ftrength of the Englifh mi- 

 litia. Thefe have now almoft altogether difappeared ; and there are 

 only fome remains of them preferved, as I am informed, in Kent : 

 So that the whole country is now occupied by great eftates of nobi- 

 lity and gentry j fo great, that, as I am informed, in fome counties 

 of England, there is hardly fo fmall an eftate to be found, as one of 

 500 1. a year. 



The next order of men I mentioned in the country, was the far- 

 mers ; a moft ufeful race of men in eveiy country. Of the numbers 

 of them, and of the cottagers, I can judge better than I can do of 

 the numbers of gentry and landholders, as I have travelled very 

 much in England on horfeback ; by which, according to the obfer- 

 vation of the Manchefter man *, you fee the country, and how it is 

 peopled and cultivated, much better than thofe who travel in the or- 

 dinary way in clofe carriages. As to the farmers; they, I believe, are 

 as much, or more, diminilhed, in proportion to their numbers, than 

 the landholders. There are farmers in England, who, as I have been 

 informed, farm above 3000 1. a year: And I have feenmyfelfa 

 farm, about 30 miles north of London, of which the tenant rents 

 the whole parifh : And as the parlbn happens to have another benefice 

 where he refides, the farmer's houfe is the only houfe in the parilli; ior, 

 as he cultivates the land by unmarried fervants, whom he keeps in the 



O o 2 houfe, 



* P. 271 of this vol. 



