thoughts upon political arithmetick, an art of greater ufe than entertainment. My friend has offered an effay towards proving that Lewis XIV. with all his acquifitions is not mafter of more people than at the begining of his wars, nay that for every fubject he had acquired, he had loft three that were his inheritance: If Philarithmus is not mistaken in his calculations, Lewis must have been impoverished by his ambition.

The prince for the publick good has a fovereign property in every private perfon's eftate, and conLequently his riches muft increase or decrease in proportion to the number and riches of his fubjects. For example: If fword or peftilence should destroy all the people of this metropolis, (God forbid therefhould be room for fuch a fuppofition! but if this fhould be the cafe) the Queen muft needs lose a great part of her revenue, or, at leaft, what is charged upon the city muft increafe the burden. upon the reft of her fubjects. Perhaps the inha-bitants here are not above a tenth part of the whole; yet as they are better fed, and clothed, and lodged, than her other fubjects, the customs and excifes upon their confumption, the impofts upon their houfes, and other taxes, do very probably make up a fifth part of the whole revenue of the crown. But this is not all; the confumption of the city takes off a great part of the fruits of the whole island; and as it pays fuch a proportion of the rent or yearly value of the lands in the country, fo it is the caufe of paying. fuch a proportion of taxes upon thofe lands. The lofs then of fuch a people muft needs be fenfible to the prince, and visible to the whole kingdom.

On the other hand, if it fhould pleafe God to drop from heaven a new people, equal in number and riches to the city, I fhould be ready to think their excifes, cuftoms, and houfe-rent would raife. as great a revenue to the crown as would be loft in: the

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the former cafe. And as the confumption of this new body would be a new market for the fruits of the country, all the lands, especially those most adjacent, would rife in their yearly value, and pay greater yearly taxes to the publick. The gain in this cafe would be as fenfible as the former lofs.

Whatsoever is affeffed upon the general, is levied upon individuals. It were worth the while then to confider what is paid by, or by means of, the meaneft fubjects, in order to compute the value of every fubject to the prince.

For my own part, I fhould believe that feven eighths of the people are without property in themfelves or the heads of their families, and forced to work for their daily bread; and that of this fort there are feven millions in the whole ifland of Great Britain: And yet one would imagine that feven eighths of the whole people fhould confume at least three fourths of the whole fruits of the country. If this is the cafe, the fubjects without property pay three fourths of the rents, and confequently enable the landed men to pay three fourths of their taxes. Now if fo great a part of the land-tax were to be divided by feven millions, it would amount to more than three fhillings to every head. And thus, as the poor are the caufe, without which the rich could not pay this tax, even the pooreft fubject is upon this account worth three fhillings yearly to the prince.

Again; one would imagine the confumption of feven eighths of the whole people, thould pay two thirds of all the customs and excifes. And if this fum too fhould be divided by feven millions, viz.the number of poor people, it would amount to more than feven fhillings to every head: And therefore with this and the former fum every poor fubject without property, except of his limbs or labour, is worth at least ten fhillings yearly to the fovereign. So much then the Queen lofes with every

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one of her old, and gains with every one of her new fubjects.

When I was got into this way of thinking, I prefently grew conceited of the argument, and was just preparing to write a letter of advice to a member of parliament, for opening the freedom of our towns and trades, for taking away all manner of distinctions between the natives and foreigners, for repealing our laws of parifh-fettlements, and removing every other obftacle to the increase of the people. But as foon as I had recollected with what inimitable eloquence my fellow-labourers had exaggerated the mischiefs of felling the birth-right of Britons for a fhilling, of fpoiling the pure British blood with foreign mixtures, of introducing a confufion of languages and religions, and of letting in ftrangers to eat the bread out of the mouths of our own people, I became fo humble as to let my project fall to the ground, and leave my country to increase by the ordinary way of generation.

As I have always at heart the publick good, fo I am ever contriving fchemes to promote it; and I think I may without vanity pretend to have contrived fome as wife as any of the caftle-builders. I had no fooner given up my former project, but my head was prefently full of draining fens and marfhes, banking out the fea, and joining new lands to my country; for, fince it is thought impracticable to increase the people to the land, I fell immediate ly to confider how much would be gained to the prince by increafing the land to the people.

If the fame omnipotent Power which made the world, fhould at this time raife out of the ocean, and join to Great Britain an equal extent of land, with equal buildings, corn, cattle, and other conveniencies and neceffaries of life, but no men, women, nor children, I fhould hardly believe this would add either to the riches of the people, or revenue of the prince; for fince the prefent buildings

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are fufficient for all the inhabitants, if any of them fhould forfake the old to inhabit the new part of the island, the increafe of houfe-rent in this would be attended with at least an equal decrease of it in the other: Befides, we have fuch a fufficiency of corn and cattle, that we give bounties to our neighbours to take what exceeds of the former off our hands, and we will not fuffer any of the latter to be imported upon us by our fellow-fubjects; and for the remaining product of the country it is already equal to all our markets. But if all these things fhould be doubled to the fame buyers, the owners must be glad with half their prefent prices, the landlords with half their prefent rents; and thus by fo great an enlargement of the country, the rents in the whole would not increafe, nor the taxes to the publick.

On the contrary, I fhould believe they would be very much diminished; for as the land is only valuable for its fruits, and thefe are all perifhable, and for the moft part must be either used within the year, or perish without use, the owners will get rid of them at any rate, rather than they fhould wafte in their poffeflion: So that it is probable the annual production of thofe perifhable things, even of the tenth part of them, beyond all poffibility of use, will reduce one half of their value. It feems to be for this reafon that our neighbour merchants who ingrofs all the fpecies, and know how great a quantity is equal to the demand, destroy all that exceeds it. It were natural then to think that the annual production of twice as much as can be used, muft reduce all to an eighth part of their prefent prices; and thus this extended ifland would not exceed one fourth part of its present value, or pay more than one fourth part of the prefent. tax.

It is generally obferved, That in countries of the greateft plenty there is the pooreft living; like the fchoolmens afs in one of my fpeculations, the peo

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ple almost starve between two meals. The truth is, the poor, which are the bulk of a nation, work only that they may live; and if with two days labour they can get a wretched fubfiftence, they will hardly be brought to work the other four: But then with the wages of two days they can neither pay fuch prices for their provifions, nor fuch excifes to the government,

That paradox therefore in old Hefiod or ov Tavros, or, half is more than the whole, is very applicable to the prefent cafe; fince nothing is more true in political arithmetick, than that the fame people with half a country, is more valuable than with the whole. I begin to think there was nothing abfurd in Sir W. Petty, when he fancied if all the Highlands of Scotland, and the whole kingdom of Ireland, were funk in the ocean, fo that the people were all faved and brought into the lowlands of Great Britain; nay, though they were to be reimburft the value of their eftates by the body of the people, yet both the fovereign and the fubjects in general would be enriched by the very lofs.

If the people only make the riches, the father of ten children is a greater benefactor to his country, than he who has added to it 10,000 acres of land, and no people. It is certain Lewis has joined vaft tracts of land to his dominions: But if Philarithmus fays true, that he is not now mafter of so many fubjects as before; we may then account for his not being able to bring fuch mighty armies into the field, and for their being neither fo well fed, nor clothed, nor paid, as formerly. The reafon is plain, Lewis muft needs have been impoverished not only by his loss of fubjects, but by his acquifition of lands.

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SATURDAY