— —Moderate towns, being feats of refinement, emu- 
lation, and arts, may be public advantages. But 
great towns, long before they grow to half the bulk 
of London, become checks on population of too 
hurtful a nature, nurferies of debauchery and volup- 
tuoufnefs 3 and, in many refpefts, greater evils than 
can be compenfated by any advantages*. 
* The mean annual births, weddings, and burials in the fol- 
lowing towns, for fome years before 1768, were nearly. 
Amfterdam, — — 4,500 — 2,400 — 7,600 
Copenhagen, 2,700 — 868 — ^ 3,100 
In the Paris bills there is, I am informed, an omiffion of all 
that die in the Foundling Hofpital, amounting to above 2000 an- 
nually. The excefs, therefore, of the burials above the births is 
greater than the bills fliew. This excefs, however, is much lefs 
than could have been expeded in fo large a town. I am not fure 
to what caufe this ought to be aferibed ; but I cannot wonder at 
it, if it be indeed true, that a fifth of all born in Paris are fent to 
the Foundling Hofpital, and that a third of the inhabitants die in 
hof pitals, z.nA alfo that all married men are excufed from fervin'j- 
in the militia, from whence draughts aie made for the army° 
Thefe are encouragements to marriage and population, which no 
other city enjoys ; and it is ftrange that in this kingdom fome 
policy of the fame kind with that laft mentioned fhould not be 
purfued. .A further fingularity in the ftate of Paris is, that the 
births in it are above four times the weddings, nothing like 
which is the cafe in any other town whofe bills 1 have feen. It 
may feem, therefore, that here, as well as in the moft healthful 
At Paris, 
Vienna, 
Births. 
19,200 
5, boo 
Weddings. Burials. 
4 300 — 19.500 
— 6,800 
Dr. Heberdeu 
