An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale.
- George Chalmers
- Date:
- 1782
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
165/210 page 151
![t >51 ] as by juft information, that the furveyors returns were not fuffictent to fupport the main pillar of his adverfary s argument ? Every fa<^ affuredly, and every inference, which tended to ftiew that the furveyors returns were fo inaccurate as to deferve little credit, evinced how little qualified they were for the ground-work of arithmetical calculations. It was Mr. Wales then who by a well- judged attack firft undermined the foundations, but it was Mr. Howlet who overturned, by an argument which fcarcely admits of a reply, the fuperftrudure of Dr. Price. Inquiry has now difcovered, what reafon might have indeed inferred, that the furveyors were lately what fuch officers have always been, fometimes ignorant, and fometimes carelefs; often foolifh, and often factious. We may learn from Davenant”', ** that the returns of marriages, births, and burials, were during the days of King William njery faulty and imperfedi.’* And fimilar returns, owing to fimilar paffions exift- ing in the breafts of men, thus indolent and weak, have continued very faulty andimperfedt ever fince. Doctor Price, in order to fhew the rapidity of decreafe, has publiftied the returns of feveral fuc- ceffive years, which evince that lamentable faft. The furveyors returns of houfes of all kinds ? q, ^ in Eng^land — — in 1759 J in 1761 — 980,692 in 1777 ~ 952,734 In. every inveftigation of truth, a variety of eividences concurring in one relation eftablifh unqueftionable. certainty. Had the re- turns of 17.59—61—77, all nearly agreed in afferting one fum, they would have merited belief, by corroborating each other. But, the fuGceffive diminution of numbers does not fhew a progrefs in depopulation, fo much as it demonftrates a continuance of error. And Dr. Price was himfelf fo fenfible of the exceeding fallibility of the returns on which he relied, that he admitted ° ** that there might be a niillion of houfes of every kind, in England and Wales, during the year 1777:” and that, as five to a houfe is too large an allowance.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28757671_0165.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
