tal! The rearing and educating yearly for London 7 or 8000 perfons require an immenfe fum.

In Paris, if the bills of mortality can be relied on, the births and burials are nearly equal, being each of them about 19,000 yearly; and according to that computation, Paris fhould need no recruits from the country. But in that city, the bills of mortality cannot be depended on for burials. It is there univerfally the practice of high and low, to have their infants nurfed in the country, till they be three years of age; and consequently thefe who die before that age are not enlifted. What proportion these bear to the whole is uncertain. But a guess may be made from fuch as die in London before the age of three, which are computed to be one half of the whole that die (a). Now Now giving the utmost allowance for the healthinefs of the country above that of a town, children from Paris that die in the country before the age of three, cannot be brought fo low as a third of thofe who die. On the other hand, the London bills of mortality are less to be depended on for births than for burials. None are inlifted but infants baptized by clergymen of the English church; and the numerous children of Papists, Diffenters, and other fectaries, are left out of the account. Upon the whole, the difference between the births and burials in Paris and in London, is much less than it appears to be on comparing the bills of mortality of these two

cities.

At the fame time, giving full allowance for children who are not brought into the London bills of mortality, there is the highest probability that a greater number of children are born in Paris than in London; and confequently, that the former requires fewer recruits from the country, than

(a) See Dr. Price, p. 362.

the

the latter. In Paris, domeftic fervants are encouraged to marry they are obferved to be more fettled than when bachelors, and more attentive to their duty. In London, fuch marriages are dif couraged, as rendering a fervant more attentive to his own family than to that of his mafter. But a fervant attentive to his own family, will not for his own fake, neglect that of his master. At any rate, is he not more to be depended on, than a fervant who continues fingle? What can be expected of idle and pampered bachelors, but debauchery and every fort of corruption? Nothing reftrains them from abfolute profligacy, but the eye of the mafter; who for that reafon is their averfion, not their love. If the poor-laws be named the folio of corruption, bachelor-fervants in London may well be confidered as a large appendix. And this attracts the eye to the poor-laws, which indeed make the chief difference between Paris and London, with refpect to the prefent point. In Paris, certain funds are established for the poor, the yearly produce of which admits but a limited number. As that fund is always pre-occupied, the low people who are not on the lift, have little or no profpect of bread, but from their own industry; and to the induftrious, marriage is in a great meafure neceffary. In London, a parifh is taxed in proportion to the number of its poor; and every perfon who is pleased to be idle, is entitled to maintenance. Most things thrive by encourage. ment, and idleness above all. Certainty of maintenance renders the low people in England idle and profligate; efpecially in London, where luxury prevails, and infects every ránk.

So infolent are the London poor, that scarce one of them will condefcend to eat brown bread. There are accordingly in London, a much greater number of idle and profligate wretches, than in Paris, or in any other town in proportion to the number of inhabitants.

inhabitants. Thefe wretches, in Doctor Swift's style, never think of pofterity, because pofterity never thinks of them: men who hunt after pleafure, and live from day to day, have no notion of fubmitting to the burden of a family. Thefe caufes produce a greater number of children in Paris than in London; though probably they differ not much in populoufnefs.

I fhall add but one other objection to a great city, which is not flight. An over grown capital, far above a rival, has, by numbers and riches, a diftreffing influence in public affairs. The populace are ductile, and easily mifled by ambitious and defigning magiftrates. Nor are there wanting critical times, in which fuch magiftrates, acquiring artificial influence, may have power to disturb the public peace. That an overgrown capital may prove dangerous to fovereignty, has more than once been experienced both in Paris and London.

It would give one the fpleen, to hear the French and English zealously difputing about the extent of their capitals, as if the profperity of their country depended on that circumftance. To me it appears like one glorying in the king's-evil, or in any contagious distemper. Much better employed would they be, in contriving means for leffening these cities. There is not a political measure, that would tend more to aggrandize the kingdom of France, or of Britain, than to fplit its capital into feveral great towns. My plan would be, to confine the inhabitants of London to 100,000, compofed of the King and his houfhold, fupreme courts of justice, government-boards, prime nobility and gentry, with neceffary fhopkeepers, artifts, and other dependents. Let the reft of the inhabitants be diftributed into nine towns properly fituated, fome for internal commerce, fome for foreign. Such a plan would diffufe life and vigour through every corner of the island.

To

To execute fuch a plan, would, I acknowledge, require great penetration and much perfeverance. I fhall fuggeft what occurs at prefent. The first ftep must be, to mark proper fpots for the nine towns, the most advantageous for trade, or for manufactures. If any of thefe fpots be occupied already with fmall towns, fo much the better. The next step is a capitation-tax on the inhabitants of London; the fum levied to be apropriated for encouraging the new towns. One encouragement would have a good effect; which is, a premium to every man who builds in any of thefe towns, - more or less, in proportion to the fize of the house.. This tax would banish from London every manufacture but of the moft lucrative kind. When by this means, the inhabitants of London are re. duced to a number not much above 100,000, the near profpect of being relieved from the tax, will make householders active to banifh all above that number and to prevent a renewal of the tax, a greater number will never again be permitted. It would require much political skill to proporti on the fums to be levied and diftributed, fo as to have their proper effect, without overburdening the capital on the one hand, or giving too great encouragement for building on the other, which might tempt people to build for the premium merely without any further view. Much will depend on an advantageous fituation; houfes built there will always find inhabitants.

The two great cities of London and Weftminfter are extremely ill fitted for local union. The latter, the feat of government and of the nobleffe, infects the former with luxury and with love of fhow. The former, the feat of commerce, infects the latter with love of gain. The mixture of thefe oppofite paffions, is productive of every groveling vice.

SKETCH

SKETCH · XII.

Origin and Progrefs of American Nations.

HAVING no authentic materials for a na

tural history of all the Americans, the following obfervations are confined to a few tribes, the best known; and to the kingdoms of Peru and Mexico, as they were at the date of the Spanish conquest.

4

As there has not been difcovered any paffage by land to America from the old world, no problem has more embarraffed the learned than to account for the origin of American nations: there are as many different opinions as there are writers. Many attempts have been made for discovering a paffage by land; but hitherto in vain. Kamfkatka, it is true, is divided from America by a narrow ftrait, full of iflands: and M. Buffon, to render the paffage ftill more eafy than by these islands, conjectures, that thereabout there may formerly have been a land-paffage, fwallowed up in later times by the ocean. There is indeed great appearance of truth in this conjecture; as all the quadrupeds of the north of Afia feem to have made their way to America: the bear, for example, the roe, the deer, the rain-deer, the beaver, the wolf, the fox, the hare, the rat, the mole. He admits, that in America there is not to be feen a lion, a tiger, a panther, or any other Asiatic quadruped of a hot climate: not, fays he, for want of a land-paffage; but because the cold climate