fubfidy-roll it appears, that the lay perfons, who paid the before-mentioned poll-tax, amounted I;367,239. to When we have afcertained what proportion the perfons paying bore to the whole, we fhall be able to form a fufficient eftimate of the total population. It appears from the table formed by Doctor Halley, according to the Breflaw births and burials from the. Northampton Table; from the Norwich Table; and from the London table, conftructed by Mr. Simpson; as these Tables are published by Doctor Price*; That the persons at any time living under fourteen years of age are a good deal fewer than one-third of the co-exifting lives. And the lay perfons, who paid the tax in 1377, muft confequently have been a good deal more than two-thirds of the whole. But, fince there may have been omif- Add a half 1,367,239 683,619 2,050,858 fubfidy of 1377, being .22,607. 2s. 8d. contained only 1,356,428 groats, which ought to have been the amount of those who were fourteen years of age and upwards. But I have chosen to ftate the number of perfons, who are mentioned in the roll as having paid, in each county and town, amount'ing to 1,367,239, though the total mistakingly added on the record is 1,376,442. * Obferv. on Revers. Payments, vol. ii. p. 35-6, 39-40. Add 196,560 But Wales, not being included in this roll, is placed on a footing with Yorkshire*, at Cheshire and Durham, having had their own receivers, do not appear on the roll; the first is ranked with Cornwall, at The second with Northumberland, at The whole people of England and $1,411 25,213 2,353,203 From Davenant's Table (in his Effay on Ways and Means, p. 76. it appears, that Wales paid a much smaller fum to the poll-tax of the 1st of William and Mary, to the quarterly poll, and indeed to every other tax, and contained a much lower number of houses, according to the hearth-books of Lady-day 1690, than Yorkshire. It was giving a very large allowance to Wales, when this country was placed on an equality with Yorkshire, which paid, in 1377, for 131,040 lay perfóns The population of Cheshire and Durham was settled upon fimilar principles; and is equally ftated in the text at a me dium rather too high. So that, as far as we can credit this authentic record, in refpect to the whole number of lay per fons upwards of fourteen years of age, we must believe, that this kingdom contained at the demise of Edward III. about TWO MILLIONS, three hundred and fifty-three thousand fouls making a reasonable allowance for the ufual omissions of taxable perfons. We We can now build upon a rock; having before us proofs, which are almost equal in certainty to actual enumerations. Yet, what a picture of public misrule, and private mifery, does the foregoing statement difplay, during an unhappy period of three hundred years! We here behold the powerful operation of those causes of depopulation, which Doctor Campbel collected, in order to fupport his hy pothesis of a decreasing population, in feudal times. But, were we to admit, that one-half of the people had been carried off by the defolating plague of 1349, as Doctor Mead fuppofes; or even onethird, as Mr. Hume reprefents with greater probability; we should find abundant reafon to admire the folidity of Lord Hale's argument, in favour of a progreffive population; because this circumftance would alone evince, that there had been, in that long effluxion of time, a confiderable increase of numbers, during various years of healthinefs, and in different ages of tranquillity. CHAP. The Population in the principal Towns of England during 1377.- Reflections. The Populoufnefs, Commerce, Policy, and Power of England-from that Fpoch to the Acceffion of Elizabeth. HE truth of Lord Hale's conclufion, with TH . regard to a progreffive increafe of people, would appear ftill more evident, if we were to form a comparison between the notices of Domefday book and the statements of the Subfidy-roll before-mentioned, which would fhow a much inferior populousness, foon after the Conqueft, in 1077, than at the demife of Edward, in 1377. We fhall certainly find additional proofs, and perhaps fome amusement, from taking a view of the population of our principal towns, as they were found, and are reprefented by the tax-gatherers, in 1377. The foregoing are the only towns, which, in 1377, paid the poll-tax of a groat for more than two thousand lay perfons, of fourteen years of age and upwards. And their inconfiderablenefs exhibits a marvellous depopulation in the country, and a lamentable want of manufactures, and of commerce, every where, in England. The ftate of Scotland was still more wretched with regard to all these. Domesday Book reprefents our cities to have been little fuperior to villages, at the Conqueft †, and * Dr. Price talked of Norwich having been a great city formerly. The Domesday Book fhews fufficiently the diminutiveness of our towns in 1077: and Mr. Topham's Subfidy Roll puts an end to conjecture with regard to the populousness of any of them anterior to 1377. See Brady on Boroughs. C much |