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The worthy Dr. Derham, from the computations 
of Mr; King, which I never faw, fuppofes there is 
about five millions and an half of people in England 5 
to which, if we add the increafe that may be fmce 
that time, the number will he near about what we 
have made them. But Sir William Petty has en- 
deavoured to make them, in his time, no lefs than 
7369000, by fuppofmg them to be in proportion to 
the AfTeffment, then eleven times greater than that in 
the city of London. In which, with regard to the 
city, he was certainly miftaken, as I have fhewn laft 
year ; for the number at that time, in 1682, was not 
much above 504000, and therefore eleven times that,- 
viz. 5544000 miilf, according to his own hypothefis,' 
be the number of people tin England.- And if we 
allow 1355:000 to be the increafe in- about 73 years' 
fince that time, by the method I fliall prefently fliew, 
the number could not be now, according to that 
affeffment, above 6899000. From which we ought 
at leaft to fubtrad; 400000, which may be judly al- 
lowed for lofs in our wars fince 1690; and the re- 
mainder 6,499000 is not half a million more than 
we have made tliem. But to compute the number 
of people from any pecuniary afl'effment that muff 
arife hom trade, circumftances, and valuation of 
land, feems to me to be a much more uncertain me- 
thod than either of thefe I have ufed. 
The people then being computed at fix millions, or 
rather lefs, it appears that England is but thinly peopled. 
For not only the exportation of at leafl 400,000 
quarters of wheat annually fliews plainly, that we 
want people to confume it at home, and that we 
maintain in bread about a million of foreigners abroad : 
N n 2 but 
