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.
186/210 page 172
![[ 1/2 ] The anonymous author of I’he Uncertainty of Population^-\shxcit% Mr. Wales for making his inquiries in the norths becaufe, every, body knows, and Dr. Price himfelf is ready to acknowledge, that the county of York has acquired an amazing addition of inhabitants within the laf thirty years. But a genuine difputant fhould never admit the truth of any pofition, however demonftrated, or however, certain, fince his adverfary is fure to build on his admiffion, as a rocky foundation, whofe ftability defies attack. Now, what- were the moral caufes of this amazing addition of inhabitants in^ Yorkihire ? Was it owing to this ; that York was the mofi; agri- cultural, manufadluring, and commercial county in England; that' there was found here a greater demand for labour; that conftant em-- ployment havingfurnifhed fteady fubfiftence and continual comfort,, men multiplied abundantly where they were fully fed and en- joyed in fecurity what they had gained by toil ? It is pretended,, however, that the aflonilhing body of people before-mentioned were not procreated amid this fcene of profperity and hap- pinefs, but were brought from other diftridts by the allurement of gain. They did not come afiuredly from the adjacent Lancafhire, Chefhire, or Cumberland, becaufe in thefe we have beheld the fame increafe, owing to the fame caufes. They could not have come in confiderable numbers from more diftant counties,, as a general furvey has difcovered no real diminution any where.. And the hiftory of internal migration might be comprized in a very little volume. At the aera of the Conqueft, when our communities were yet inconfiderable, the land certainly fupported the great body of the people. It was the introdudlion of ma- nufadlure that firft colledted the artificers into villages, which ere long fwelled into towns : and it was commerce, that, in the progrefs of traffic and the arts, raifed the towns into the im- portance of cities. But, it was the improvement of hufbandry which firfi; purged the country of ufelefs hands, and forced con- fuming multitudes to look for fubfiftence from the labour which manufadtories and trade employ. Admitting that this laft revolu- tion had taken place fubfequent to the epoch of the. bounty on corn, we muft ftill remember, that it is ufeful employment, which, promotes population,, while idlenefs only augments the rolls “ lo P? H—15*.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28757671_0186.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
