Ch. viii. in England. 421 



6' 



Mr. King and Dr. Short, that the proportion of 

 births at the beginning and in the middle of the 

 century was greater than at the end. But this 

 supposition would, in a calculation from the 

 births, give a smaller population in the early part 

 of the century than is given in the Results of the 

 Population Act, though there are strong reasons 

 for supposing that the population there given is 

 too small. According to Davenant, the number 

 of houses in 1690 was 1,319,215, and there is no 

 reason to think that this calculation erred on the 

 side of excess. Allowing only five to a house in- 

 stead of 5J-, which is supposed to be the propor- 

 tion at present, this would give a population of 

 above six millions and a half, and it is perfectly 

 incredible, that from this time to the year 1710, 

 the population should have diminished nearly a 

 million and a half. It is far more probable that 

 the omissions in the births should have been much 

 greater than at present, and greater than in the 

 deaths ; and this is further confirmed by the ob- 

 servation before alluded to, that in the first half 

 of the century the increase of population, as 

 calculated from the births, is much greater than 

 is warranted by the proportion of births to deaths. 

 In every point of view, therefore, the calculations 

 from the births are little to be depended on. 



It must indeed have appeared to the reader, in 

 the course of this work, that registers of births or 

 deaths, excluding any suspicion of deficiencies, 

 must at all times afford very uncertain data for 

 an estimate of population. On account of the 



