242 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



sheep meal &c when they had occasion for ym. 61y It woud be a rule for merchants 

 where to find the commoditys they want & to vent those they have. This 

 compared with the custom house books woud determiee the fertility and 

 comparative bareness of soils, for if it were found yt suppose a 1000 cows &c in the 

 north maintained so many men &c & sent off so much butter &c, whereas in 

 another place a like number of cows & acres maintained so many more, the 

 excesse must arise from the fertility or some other like cause, which might admit 

 of many usefull observations. 



I suppose youll inquire, why 1 do not imediately set about this, since it may 

 so easily be done, & may be so usefull. I answer, I am yet too young in my 

 employment to meddle out of my own busyness, and I wou'd not meddle in any 

 thing yt may procure me censure, but when I think it proper I may perhaps look 

 farther into it. Tho I am afraid that the particulars are so material!, yt many 

 may think it yr interest yt they slioud not be known perhaps it may be dangerous 

 to publish ym where we are not very sure of the government ; for as they are the 

 best means for (mana)ging a good government so they capacitate an ill designing 

 government to do great mischief, & this I take to be the reason yt very few are 

 willing yr governours shoud know the number strength & riches of their subjects. 

 The reason yt bils of mortality have bin so readily kept & communicated I take to 

 be from peoples not apprehending yt they might give light into these things. 



I observe in your paper you say, bils of mortallity have not bin kept in Dublin 

 above 10 years, this is a mistake, I remember ym before I left ye College, I thing 

 one Johnson distributed ym 18 years ago. 



In the discourse of feavours, you suppose ye town was thinner yn formerly in 

 1689, but yt is a mistake, it was never more populous. King James his court and 

 parlement were in it. T^t year great numbers of the plundered English & 

 creaghting Irish came into it, in some places whole houses full of ym besides often 

 10m of the army with ye doxys garsons &c, & in as much as there were most men 

 and women, & had ill attendance yerefore ye number of those that dyed above 

 (16) is encreased. 



You observe in the head of males and females yt Ravenous beasts do not 

 multiply so fast as sheep &c tho they have many in a litter and impute it to pro- 

 miscuous copulation, but yt is not the reason for the females generally admit but 

 one yre is no forcing with ym, ye tru reason is the want of certain and easy food 

 & ye unseasonable destruction they meet with, we kill ym (as) we can find 

 ym when young & wn with young, we take all advantages of ym & never let ym 

 come to a head, & if they do they must Starve, as no doubt many do, for perhaps 

 the whole kingdom cou'd not find constant food, in yr destroying way, for 100m 

 wolves for one year therefore they cannot subsist beyond a certain number, no 

 more yn sheep beyond a certain number can live on 100 acres of land, taking 

 away yerefore the over plus is ye prservation of the whole, & yt is the care of 

 man. 



As to wt you say of the clergy they are not in this kingdom the 400th part of 

 mankind, but I believe they are ye 10th of those, yt can prtend to be maintained 

 in a gentile way by other mens labour. Now tho in generall yr may be 14 males 

 for 13 females, yet amongst those yt can prtend to such a maintenance as this, 

 the case is quite otherwise perhaps there are 4 women to 1 man, all the daughters 

 of familys are of (ye) same rank, but not all the sons ; tho mankind have more 



