C +75 ] 
that in general among them the proportion of births 
to burials was not greater than 1 17 to 100, as we men- 
tioned above ; fo that nothing can be concluded from 
particular healthy places. The queftion is, what is 
the refult upon the whole thro’ the kingdom ? what 
is the general proportion of the births to burials, 
from which the increafe is to be effimated ? and 
which Sir William Petty fays is m to 100, and 
Dr. Derham as 1 12 to 100. See if he can difprove 
thefe numbers by putting together all the different 
accounts from every corner, among the towns as 
well as the country yi and if he cannot, to argue only 
from a few inffances is nothing to the purpofe ; for 
where there there is a multitude of different cafes, 
they muff all be confidered, to arrive at the general 
truth. But even in the particulars he mentions, he 
has not completed his argument for, to make it 
eoncluhve, he fhould have fhewn, that, within thefe 
laft forty years, the time, he thinks, of our great in- 
creafe, in thofe parifhes the number of houffs or 
people were increafed,. in proportion almoft as the 
births were above the burials, as 149 to 83 : and if 
that cannot be made to appear, it is plain, that, for 
all he has faid, the annual increafe may be conftantly 
confumed by our Ioffes.. 
And now the worthy Gentleman having endea- 
voured to fhew, from the cafe of a few parifhes in 
the country, that we are in an increafing ftate,, he- 
proceeds to give me his ferious advice in two par- 
ticulars : 
Firfl , That I would reconfider. a proportion ad- 
vanced by me, That all reafonable ways of increafing 
our people, even to the naturalizing of foreigners, 
P p p 2 would i 
