Royal Society. 5^' 
by any thing in the nature of the fpecies, as it is from the cau- 
tious difficulty moll people make to adventure on the ftate of 
marriage, from the profpe6l of the trouble and charge of provid- 
ing for a family 5 nor are the poorer fort of people herein to be 
blamed, fince their difficulty of fubfifting is occafioned by the 
unequal diftribution of poflefilons, all being neceffarily fed from 
the earth, of which yet 10 few are mailers • {o that befides them- 
ielves and families, they are yet to work for thofe, who are 
owners of the ground that feeds them , and of fuch, does by far 
the greater part of mankind confill; otherwile it is plain, there 
might well be four times as many births as we now find 5 for by 
computation from the table, there are found 15 coo perfons above 
J 6 and under 45, of which, at lead 7000 are women capable of 
bearing children ; of thefe notwithflanding, there are but 1258 
born yearly, which is but little more than a fixth part j {6 that 
about one in fix of theie women do breed yearly 5 whereas were 
they all married, it would not appear ilrange or unlikely, that 
four of fix fhould bring forth a child every year 5 the political 
confequences of this are evident ; the llrength and glory of a 
king confifl in the multitude of his fubjeas, therefore above 
all things celibacy ought to be difcouraged, as by extraordinary 
taxing and military lervice^ and thofe who have numerous fami- 
lies of children fhould be countenanced and encouraged by fuch 
laws, as the ^us trium Liber or urn amongft the Romans 3 but ef- 
pecially by an effe6lual care to provide for the lubfiftence of the 
poor, by finding them employment, whereby they may earn their 
bread, without being chargeable to the publick. 
Pearl Filhing in Ireland; by Sir Rob. Redding, Phil. TranC 
N° ip8. p. (555>. 
IN the county of Tyrone there are four rivers, abounding in 
that fort of mufcles, in which pearls are found, all emptying 
themfelves into Lough Foyle^ on which the town of Tierry Hands, 
and then into the lea 5 there are alfo other rivers in the county of 
"Donnegal^ and a river near 1>undalk^ likewife the Shure running 
by TVarerford, and the Lougb called Lough Lean in Kerry ^ 
which affords the like fifh : There is nothing extraordinary in the 
manner of filhing there; in the warm months before harvcll, 
whilfl the rivers are low and clear, the poor people go into the 
water, and fome take them up with their toes, others with woo- 
den tongs, and others again by putting a fliarpened flick into the 
opening of the (hell 3 and altho' by common eflimatc, not above 
one ihell in a hundred may have a pearl, and of thele pearls not 
above 
