N 
288 POPULATION. 
pointed, with a competent salary; his accounts to be 
inspected monthly by a select committee of parishio¬ 
ners. He thinks poor families in distress should not 
be relieved by weekly pay, but rather by a liberal sup¬ 
ply upon the occasion, and the habit of weekly pay 
kept off’ if possible; that much might be done by 
mending the morals of the lower classes, by reward¬ 
ing the frugal and diligent, and by promoting societies, 
or clubs, under proper regulations ; and says, it would 
be well if a handsome premium were offered for the 
best plan of a box-club society ; which, he thinks, un¬ 
der due encouragement from those who now pay the 
rates, might, at no very remote period, prevent the 
payment of any other rates whatever. 
SECT. VIII.—POPULATION. 
Dr. Nash states the population of Worcester city 
and suburbs, in 1782, to have been 2449 houses, and 
13,104 inhabitants, including 10 parishes, besides col¬ 
lege precincts; the burials, in one year, near that time, 
were 451, and births 449, which gives rather more than 
one in thirty dying in a year. It is not easy to esti¬ 
mate, whether the population has, since that time, in¬ 
creased. The manufactures are stationary, and few 
new erections have taken place. 
Kidderminster, by the same authority, contained in 
1773, 1180 houses, 2949 males, 2800 females; total 
5749 : but, since that time, shews no symptoms of in¬ 
crease. Part of its manufactures is stationary, and 
part fluctuating; but is of that nature that children 
can be employed in preparing the yarn at a very early 
age, 
I 
