whole." During the fame feffion, the firft bounty was given on the exportation of corn: "How much," fays that laborious writer, "this bounty has contributed to the improvement of husbandry, is too obvious to be difputed :" and accordingly, the year 1699 has been noticed as the epoch of the laft great dearth of corn in England. A flourishing agriculture muft have neceffarily promoted populoufnefs in two refpects; by offering encouragement to labour; by furnishing a supply of provifions at once conftant and cheap, which were both extremely irregular in former times. The act of toleration, which was at the fame time paffed, by "giving eafe to fcrupulous confciences," tended to promote our induftry and traffic, and confequently the progrefs of population: for, we may learn of Sir Jofiah Child how many people had been driven out of England, from the rife of the Puritans in the reign of Elizabeth, to the bleffed æra of toleration.

On the other hand, it has been already fhewn how much the eight-years war, which grew out of the Revolution, diftreffed the foreign trade of England. As King William employed chiefly the troops of other rations; as the profligate and the idle principally recruited the army; as humanity now foftened the rigours of war; it may be juftly doubted, if we loft a greater number by the miferies of the camp, than were acquired by the arrival of refugees, who, during that period, fought fecurity in England. And of this opinion was Doctor

6

Doctor Davenant *, who was no unconcerned spectator of thofe eventful. times. Yet, it is a known fact, that the taxes, which were fucceffively im, pofed, did not produce in proportion to their augmentations. And if we attribute this unfavourable circumstance to the inability and preffures of the people, more than to the novelty of contributions, to the enmity of many against the new government, and to the diforders of the coin, we ought un doubtedly to infer, that the impofition of additional burdens neceffarily ftopped the progress of numbers. The average price of wheat, from 1692 to 1699, was nearly eight fillings the bufhel, according to Fleetwood. There have been terrible years dearths of corn, faid Swift, and every place is ftrewed with beggars, but dearths are common in better climates, and our evils here lie much deeper.

Nevertheless, internal traffic flourished in the mean time. In 1689, the manufactures of copper and brass were revived, rather than introduced. The Sword-blade company, which fettled in Yorkshire," brought over foreign workmen." The French refugees improved the fabricks of paper, and of filk, especially the luteftrings and alamodes; which were fo much encouraged by Parliament, that the weavers, being greatly increased in numbers, as well as in infolence, before the year 1697, raised a tumult in London against

* Vol. iii. p. 369.

↑ And. Chron. Acc. of Com. vol. ii. p. 192.

the

the wearers of Eaft India manufactures*. The establishment of the Bank of England in 1694% by facilitating public and private circulation, produced all the falutary effects, that were orginally foretold, because it has been constantly managed with a prudence, integrity, and caution, which have never been exceeded. By giving encouragement to fisheries, in 1695, a hardy race must have been greatly multiplied; and by encouraging, in 1696, the making of linens, subsistence was given to the young and the old.

The conclufion of every lengthened war deprives many men of fupport, who are therefore obliged to re-enter once more into the competitions of the world. Yet, Doctor Davenant † affured the Marquis of Normanby, in 1699, " that we really want people and hands to carry on the woollen and linen manufactories together." Admitting the truth of an affertion, of which indeed there is no reason to doubt, the observation is altogether confiftent with facts and with principles. In less than two years from the peace of Ryfwick, the dif banded idlers had been all engaged in the manufactories, which we have feen established, and in the foreign traffic, that has been fhewn to have flourished fo greatly from this epoch to the demife of King William. Now, what does the pofition of Davenant prove, more than that uncommon

* And. Chron. Acc. of Com. vol. ii. p. 220. + Effay on Eaft India Trade, p. 46.

demand

demand never fails to produce remarkable scarcity, till a fufficient fupply has been found? And Sir Jofiah Child was therefore induced, a hundred years ago, to lay it down as a maxim; Such as our employment is for people, fo many will our people be. Were we now to compare the circumstance mentioned by Sir John Dalrymple, of the raifing of three-and-twenty regiments in fix weeks, during the year 1689, with the fact ftated by Doctor Davenant," of the scarcity of hands” in 1699, we ought to infer, that an alteration of manners, owing to whatever caufe, had in the mean time taken place; and that the lower orders of men had learned from experience, to prefer the gainful employments of peace to the lefs profitable, and more dangerous, adventures of war.

Yet, admitting that the moral caufes before-mentioned had naturally produced an augmentation of numbers, during the reign of William, we ought here to remark, that the people who chiefly shared in the felicities, or were incommoded by the factions of those times, must have drawn their first breath prior to the Revolution: the middle-aged, and the old, who enacted the laws, and as minifters, or magiftrates, carried them into execution, must have been born, during the diftractions of the civil wars, or amid the contests of the adminiftration of Charles I.: and the gallant youth, who fought by the fide of King William, must havę first seen the light foon after the Restoration.

But, it ought here to be stated, as a circum

5

stance,

ftance, which may be fuppofed to have checked the progrefs of population, that there had been actually raised, though with fome difficulty, on nearly feven millions of people, in thirteen L. 58,698,688. 19s. 8d.:

years

*

If we average this fum by the number of years, we fhall gain a pretty exact idea of King William's annual income

And if from this we deduct King

James's revenue

£4,415,360

2,061,856

And, thefe facts fhew how much more the people were burthened in the latter, than in the former, reign.

It has nevertheless been proved, that manufac tures flourished in the mean time; that there was a great demand for labour; that the foreign traffiè and navigation of England doubled, from the peace of Ryfwick to the acceffion of Queen Anne. For, the re-coinage of the filver mean time produced an exhilarating effect on industry, in the fame proportion as the debasement of the current

* Mr. Afle's Transcript.