Now, suppose London, having 116,000 families, should have seven
heads in each--the medium between MM. Auzout's and Grant's
reckonings--the total of the people would be 812,000; or if we
reckon that there dies one out of thirty-four--the medium between
thirty and thirty-seven above mentioned--the total of the people
would be thirty-four times 23,212, viz., 789,208, the medium between
which number and the above 812,000 is 800,604, somewhat exceeding
800,000, the supposed number of Holland.
Furthermore, I say that upon former searches into the peopling of
the world, I never found that in any country--not in China itself--
there was more than one man to every English acre of land: many
territories passing for well-peopled where there is but one man for
ten such acres. I found by measuring Holland and West Frisia (alias
North Holland) upon the best maps, that it contained but as many
such acres as London doth of people, viz., about 696,000 acres. I
therefore venture to pronounce (till better informed) that the
people of London are as many as those of Holland, or at least above
two-thirds of the same, which is enough to disable the objection
above mentioned; nor is there any need to strain up London from
696,000 to 800,000, though competent reasons have been given to that
purpose, and though the author of the excellent map of London, set
forth A.D. 1682, reckoned the people thereof (as by the said map
appears) to be 1,200,000, even when he thought the houses of the
same to be but 85,000.
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