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place, confider what he has faid with regard to the 
increafe of our people. He fays, whether the king- 
dom is really in a declining or increafing ftate, is a 
problem not to be folved by calculation : And yet he ( 
himfelf can guefs by appearances, that it has greatly 
increafed within thefe 40 years. But, by his good 
leave I muft tell him, that it is a problem in po- 
litical arithmetic to be folved from fome data, as 
well as others. If the number of people be nearly 
found, and the general proportion of births to burials, 
at an average, thro’ the kingdom be known, with 
the annual lofles of our fencible men, at a mode- 
rate computation ; from thefe data, I fay, any one, 
who underftands numbers, will eafily determine 
whether we are increafing or decreafing. And ac- 
cordingly, I have fhewn, that the annual increment 
of our fencible men is not much above 8000, which 
number is confumed by our annual Ioffes ; and there- 
fore we are not in an increafing ftate. For the whole 
number of people muft always be in proportion to 
the fencible men ; fo that, if there is no increafe of 
them, there can be none upon the whole. 
It is true, 1 am the firft who ventured upon a fo- 
lution of this queftion ; but when I confider what I 
have done, I cannot fee but that the principles upon 
which I reafoned are right. The data are, I think, 
exadt enough to difcover our ftate. And Dr. Halley’s 
rule to compute the fencible men, where our Ioffes 
are to be reckoned, is undoubtedly true. So that if 
there is any difficulty, it is in fixing the general pro- 
portion between births and burials, thro’ the kingdom, 
viz. 112 to 1 00 ; which I have taken from Dr. Der- 
ham, who had colledted many obfervations ; being 
a greater 
