[ 403 ] 

 and having been long on the decline in all 

 points of manufacture, according to the belt 

 accounts among them : Is it confident with 

 reafon, that fuch a people mould ever make 

 the progrefs in manufactures that we have 

 done : It is impoflible : And the facts before 

 advanced prove it. It is not the daily pay 

 of a workman that is to be taken as a cri- 

 terion, but the quantity of work performed 

 in the fame manner, for a given fum of 

 money : Half a crown a day may certainly 

 be cheaper wages than one ihilling. 



Secondly, it is afTerted by thefe writers, 

 who affect to run down our affairs, that, 

 rich as we are, our population has fuffered, 

 that we have loft a million and half of peo- 

 ple fince the Revolution, and that we are at 

 prefent declining in numbers. 



To enter into a particular examination 

 of thefe points, to anfwer the fpirit of the 

 argument ftep by ftep, would exceed the 

 bounds of this letter ; I mail therefore only 

 venture a few remarks on the fubject in 

 general: If they are juft, the ideas of thefe 

 writers mull: be falfe. 



I purpofely omitted fpeaking of popula- 

 tion before ; becaufe I conceived it to be 

 only a fecondary object, and dependent upon 

 others. 



When we fpcak of the intereir. of indi- 

 viduals, the populoufneis of a country has 

 D d 2 nothing 



