[ 4&9 ] 
be to the cottages nearly in the fame proportion. 
But here I am furprifed, that he fhould reafon in fo 
loofe and an inaccurate a manner. For, as there may 
be 7000 parifhes in the villages and open country, to 
infer from the numbers in nine of them that are con- 
tiguous, and that all of them together do not make 
a very large parifh, many being much larger as to 
the number of houfes, and where there may be par- 
ticular circumftances ; I fay, to infer from them what 
tile proportion will be in all parifhes, in the villages 
and open country, is the fame way of reafoning as to 
fay, becaufe the poor in one parifh are in fuch a pro- 
portion, therefore they are fo in 1000 parifhes, or 
thro’ four or five counties : whereas it is plain, that 
the proportion differs almoft in every parifh, and in 
every county ; and the fum of all muft be added to- 
gether, before we can know what the real propor- 
tion is. And nothing can be inferred from the cir- 
cumftances of a few parifhes, or even of a County, 
what the proportion will be in the whole. And yet, 
from fuch precarious- and vague reafoning he pre- 
fumes to compute, that there are above 460,000 
cottages in the villages and open country ; hav- 
ing affirmed, without any hefitation, that there are 
200,000 rated houfes in that extent. Such reafoning 
is unufual in philofophcal inquiries.. 
In like manner the Gentleman reafons very inac- 
curately about his fecond divifion, containing the lef- 
fer market and country towns, having fuppofed in 
them 200,000 taxed houfes : For from one inftance 
of the market town of Langborne, having found the 
whole number of houfes to be to the cottages as 445 
to 2 29, or the rated houfes to the cottages as 216 to 
220, he fuppcfes the like proportion in all the mar- 
