[ 88 3 ] 
above, made only about fix millions. And therefore 
the annual increafe of fencible men in England is 
not above 4130, and in both Iflands it does not ex- 
ceed 7900 ; which being lefs than what we have 
allowed above, feems to corroborate what has been 
faid. 
Now if this can be proved, as I imagine it has, 
that there is no increafe of our people in Britain 
and Ireland, becaufe of our Ioffes, we may make 
this unpleafant reflexion, that our country can never 1 
be fully peopled, while our Ioffes continue fo great 
as they have been thefe laft fixty years. For it has 
been fhewn in my laft letter, that we want one 
third more people, to be fully inhabited, and which 
we could conveniently maintain from our own na- 
tural produce, if our land was duly cultivated. And 
it may be farther obferved, that as the greateft part 
of thofe Ioffes above-mentioned belong to England, 
becaufe of its much greater trade, and the greater 
number of its people, it may be confidered as in a 
decreafing ftate with regard to its natives ; and, if it 
were not lupplied from Scotland and Ireland, the 
decreafe would be plainly difcovered. For, as the 
people in England are double to thofe in both the 
two other countries, its Ioffes muft be in that propor- 
tion at leaft, or about 5300 annually, two-thirds of 
the whole ; which is more than the increafe of its 
fencible men. 
In London and Weftminfter the decreafe has been 
obfervable from the Bills of Mortality within thefe 
laft twelve years, as I have fhewn in my firft letter ; 
but the greateft part of that may, I believe, be attri- 
buted to other caufes, rather than national Ioffes. 
From 
