multiply by five and two-fifths, or even by five and one-fifth, this operation would carry the number up nearly to feven millions; and feven millions were confidered by fome of the moft intelligent men of that day, as the whole amount of the people of this kingdom at the Revolution.

But, if we take the lowest number, of fix millions and a half, and compare it with five millions, the highest number probably in 1588, this comparifon would evince an increase of a million and a half in the fubfequent century, and of more than four millions, from 1377. Yet, Doctor Price confidered the epoch of the Reformation (1517) as a period of greater population than the æra of the Revolution.

In giving an account of the reign of King William, Sir John Dalrymple remarks, "That three and twenty regiments were completed in fix weeks, This is doubtless an adequate proof of the ardour of the times, but it is a very flight evidence of an overflowing populoufnefs. Want of employment often fends recruits to an army, which, in more induftrious years, would languish without hope of reinforcements. We may learn, indeed, from Sir Jofiah Child, That it was a question agitated, during the reign of Charles II. "If we have more "people now than in former ages, how came it to "pafs, that in the times of Henry IV, and V. and

even in prior times, we could raise such great "armies, and employ them in foreign wars, and "yet retain a fufficient number to defend the

« king

"kingdom, and to cultivate our lands at home? "I answer first," fays this judicious writer, "that

bignefs of armies is not a certain indication of "the numeroufnefs of a nation, but fometimes of "the government and diftribution of the lands; "where the prince and lords are owners of the "whole territory: although the people be thin, "the armies upon occafion may be very great, as "in Fez and Morocco. Secondly, princes armies "in Europe are become more proportionable to "their purfes, than to the numbers of their people."

Thus much it was thought proper to premife, with regard to the previous condition and policy of England, as well as its populousness at different periods anterior to The Revolution, when THIS ESTIMATE begins.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

Opinions as to the Strength of Nations.-Reflections.The real Power of England, during King William's Reign. The State of the Nation.-The Loffes of ber Trade from King William's Wars.-Her Commerce revives.-Complaints of Decline, amidst her Profperity.-Reflections,

TH

HEORISTS are not agreed, in refpect to thofe circumftances, which form the ftrength of nations, either actual, or comparative. One confiders the power of a people "to confist in their numbers and wealth." Another infifts, " that the force of every community moft effentially depends on the capacity, valour, and union of the leading characters of the ftate." And a third, adopting partly the fentiments of both, contends, "that though numbers and riches are highly important, and the refources of war may decide a conteft, where other advantages are equal; yet the refources of war, in hands that cannot employ them, are of little avail, fince manners are as effential, as either people or wealth."

It is not the purpose of this Estimate to amufe the fancy with uninftructive definitions, or to bewilder the judgment with verbal difputations, which are as unmeaning as they are unprofitable. The glories

glories of the war of 1756 have cast a continued ridicule on the far-famed Eftimator of the manners and principles of those times. Recent ftruggles have thrown equal ridicule on other calculators of an analogous fpirit. And we may find reason in the end to conclude, that the qualities of the mind, either vigorous or effeminate, have undergone, in this island, no unhappy change, whatever alteration there certainly is in the labour of the hands of our people, from the epoch of the Revolution to the present moment.

But, from general remark, let us defcend to minute investigations, with regard to the progreffive numbers of the people, to the extent of their industry, and to the fucceffive amount of their traffic and accumulations; because cur resources arofe then, as they arife now, from the land and labour of this island alone.

The infult offered by France to the fovereignty of England, by giving an afylum to an abdicated monarch, and by disputing the right of a highminded people to regulate their own affairs, forced King William into an eight years war with that potent country, which he perfonally hated, and with which he ardently wished to quarrel. He had therefore no inclination to weigh in very fcrupulous fcales the wealth of his fubjects against the greater opulence of their rivals, who were in those days more induftrious, and were further advanced in the practice of manufacture, and knowledge

of

..

of traffic. Yet, the defire of that warlike monarch being feconded by the zeal of his people, whofe refources were not then equal to their bravery, he was enabled to engage in an arduous difpute for the most honourable end. Happy! had hoftilities ended, as foon as the independence of the nation was vindicated from infult, and when the interefts of the people required the ceffation of warfare.

We may form a fufficient judgment of the ftrength of England, at that æra, from the following detail:

The number of fighting men, according to the calculation of Gregory King, as cited with approbation by Davenant, was 1,308,000; yet the one-fourth of the people formed the men fit for war, whatever may have been the real popula tion of England, during the reign of King Wil liam.

The yearly income of the nation from its land and labour amounted, if we may credit the statement of Gregory King, to

The yearly expence of the people

for their neceffary fubfiftence

£•43,500,000

41,700,000

The yearly accumulation of profit £.1,800,000

The