POPULATIOIC. 



137 



mental helps, beside the faith to be reposed in books, and 

 the uncertain testimony of opinion, we observe a great con- 

 trariety in the results of all these calculators. The enumera- 

 tions of Father Riccioli are almost invariably framed on round 

 and exaggerated numbers. The thousand millions of inha- 

 bitants he imagines the earth to contain, are reduced to the 

 one half by Isaac Vossius, in his work entitled " Opus vari- 

 orum Observationumy Jacob Usher, or Usserius, takes the 

 mean of this difference ; and the Marquis of St. Aubin mo- 

 difies it, and shows it to be doubtful. These discrepances and 

 uncertainties are not, in reality, attended by any conse- 

 quences prejudicial to the pra6tical system of society ; but it 

 is not the same when a particular reference is made, to a de- 

 terminate country, to a city, the necessities of which are con- 

 stantly in proportion to its inhabitants. The positive know- 

 ledge of their number, classes, and conditions, has a direct 

 and immediate influence on their good government, and on 

 the welfare of all. For this reason, one of the earliest obje6ls 

 of the solicitude of every zealous administrator, has constantly 

 been to obtain a precise knowledge of the number and cir- 

 cumstances of those residing within the boundaries of his go- 

 vernment. Lima, which reckons, in the series of its viceroys, 

 many who were enlightened in an extraordinary degree, has 

 had repeated occasions to witness the enrolment of those who 

 reside within its precindts. That which has been recently 

 ordered by his excellency the present viceroy, will form an 

 epoch in the annals of Peru. This undertaking, the monu- 

 ment of his wisdom and profound meditations, will prove to 

 posterity the love which that country has constantly merited 

 from, the chief magistrates by whom it has been governed, 



T and 



