Dr . percival on Population . 167 
vice and luxury ; the difcouragements to marriage; the 
deftruCtion of cottages ; and various other caufes have 
the moft unfavourable influence on the increafe of man- 
kind. But it is to be hoped, that thefe evils do not uni- 
verfally prevail ; and that even fome good may arife from 
them to check their baneful effects. Certain it is, that in 
this part of England the inhabitants multiply with great 
rapidity : and though the increafe may be chiefly owing 
to recruits drawn from other counties, yet the flourifh- 
ing ftate of our manufactures cannot fail to promote po- 
pulation, by affording plentiful means of fubfrftence to 
the poor. The bifhop of Chefter informs me, that in 
various parifh regifters which he has confulted, the births 
have progreflively become more numerous from gene- 
ration to generation. At Boxley in Kent, where his 
lordfhip was vicar, he divided the times, from the com- 
mencement of the reign of queen Elizabeth, into pe- 
riods of twenty-one years ; and found, that the number 
of births in the firft period was 310, and in the laft 525*. 
The increafe was gradual through the whole time.. 
Manchefter, 
Sept. 20, 177.5.. 
IX. Violent 
