and from the debility of peftilential diftempers," arifing from a wretched husbandry, as much as from a noxious state of the atmosphere. It was a threwd remark of Major Graunt*, when he was reflecting over" the ficklinefs, the healthfulness, and "fruitfulness, of feafons," that "the more fickly the "years are, the lefs fruitful of children they alfo bet." The firft notice, which the Parliament feem to have taken of the paucity of inhabitants, may be feen in the Statute of Labourers, that was enacted in 1349. This law recites-"That whereas a great part of the people, and efpecially of workmen and fervants, late died of the peftilence, many, feeing the neceffity of mafters and great fcarcity of fervants, will not ferve, unlefs they receive exceffive wages, fome being rather willing to beg in idlenefs, than by labour to get their living." Confi-' dering therefore "the grievous incommodities which of the lack, efpecially of ploughmen and fuch labourers, may hereafter come," Edward III. with the affiftance of the prelates, the nobles, and the learned men, ordained a variety of regulations, which were unjust in their theory, and violent in their execution. This edict of the King, and his council, In his Obfervations on the Bills of Mortality, 1662. There were no fewer than one-and-twenty dearths and famines from 1069 to 1355. See a Collection of the most remarkable dearths and famines, published by Edward Howe, in 1631. These regulations may be feen in Cay's Collection of Statutes, vol. i. p. 261-3; and fufficiently prove, to what a deplorable council, was enforced by the legislature in the subfequent year" on the petition of the commonalty, that the faid fervants, having no regard to the faidordinance, but to their ease and fingular covetife, do withdraw to ferve great men and other, unless they have wages and living to the double and treble of that they were wont to take the twentieth year of the king that now is." Yet, after adjusting minutely the prices of labour, of natural products, and even of manufactures, the statute of the 23d Edward III. directed, "that the artificers fhould be fworn to use their crafts as they did in the twentieth year of the fame king*" (1346), under the penalty of imprisonment, at the difcretion of the Juftices. The Parliament bufied themfelves, year after year, in regulating labour, which had been defrauded of its deplorable ftate of flavery the collective mafs of the people was then reduced, "Every able-bodied perfon, under fixty years of age, not having fufficient to live on, being required, shall be bound to ferve him that doth require him, or else shall be committed to gaol, till he finds fecurity to ferve. If a fervant or workman, depart from fervice before the time agreed upon, he fhall be imprisoned. If any artificer take more wages than were wont to be paid, he shall be committed to gaol." The feverity of thefe penalties was foon greatly increafed by the 34th Edward III. which directs, "That if any labourer or fervant flee to any town, the chief officer fhall deliver him up: and if they depart to another county, they fhall be burnt in the forehead with the letter F." Thus, fays Anderson, they lived, till manufactures drove flavery away. Chap. 1-7. Chron. Ac. of Com. v. i. p. 204. just reward, by confiderable defalcations from the coin. During an administration lefs active, and vigorous, and refpected, than Edward's, fuch regu-. lations had produced tumult and revolt. Scarcely, indeed was that great monarch laid in his grave, when the confirmation of the fame ftatutes, by his feeble fucceffor, gave rife to the memorable rebellion of Tyler and Straw, which was fo deftructive in its immediate effects, yet proved so beneficial in its ultimate confequences! The common people acquired implied liberty from infurrection, while the Parliament were enacting †, "that forced manumiffions fhould be confidered as void." And fuch are the revolutions, which infenfibly take place, during ages. of darkness, before the eyes of chroniclers, who are carried away by the found of words, without regarding the efficacy of things. The declamatory recitals of fuch ftatutes ought generally to be regarded as flight proofs of the authenticity of facts, unless where they are fupported, by collateral circumftances. From the reiterated debasement of the coin, which proceeded from the expenfive wars of Edward III. we might be apt to infer, that the recited deftruction of the *From the value of the pound, or twenty fhillings in prefent money, as established by Edward I. in 1300, there were deducted by Edward III. in the 18th of his reign, 4s. 11 d., and in the 20th of his reign 9d. more; fo that there had been taken no lefs than five fhillings and nine-pence from the ftandard pound, as fettled in 1300, of £.2. 175. 5d. Harris on Coins, part ii. ch. 1. ↑ By the 5th Richard II. peftilence peftilence was merely a pretence to palliate motives of avarice, or to juftify the rigours of oppreffion. On the other hand, Doctor Mead affures us, that the greatest mortality, which has happened in later ages, was about the middle of the fourteenth century; when the plague that seized England, Scotland, and Ireland, in 1349, is faid to have difpeopled the earth of more than half of its inhabitants. The Commons petitioned, during the Parliament † of 1364, that, in confideration of the preceding peftilence, the King would allow perfons, who held lands of him in chief, to let leafes without a licence, as had been lately practifed, till the country were become more populous. From the 23d of Edward I. when the cities and boroughs are faid to have been first formally fummoned to Parliament, to the demife of Edward IV. the fheriffs often returned, That there were no cities or boroughs in their counties, whence reprefentatives could be fent. This form of expreffion Doctor Brady has very juftly explained to mean, That the towns were fo depopulated and poor, as to be unable to pay the accustomed expences of delegates. The truth of that representation, and of this commentary, seems to be confirmed by * Difcourfe concerning Peft. Contag. p. 24—5. Of Boroughs, p. 125, &c. a law a law of Henry VII.*; which recites, That where, in fome towns, two hundred perfons lived by their lawful labours, now they are occupied by two or three herdfinen, and the residue fall into idleness. And, from the foregoing facts we may furely infer, that there must have been a great paucity of people in England, during thofe good old times, at least towards the conclufion of the celebrated reign of Edward III. From incontrovertible evidence we can now eftablish the whole number of inhabitants, at that epoch, with fufficient exactness to answer all the practical purposes of the ftatefman, and even to fatisfy all the fcrupulous doubts of the fceptic. A poll-tax of four-pence, having been imposed by the Parliament of the 51ft of Edward III. (1377) on every lay person, as well male as female, of fourteen years and upwards, real mendicants only excepted,' there remains an official return of the perfons who paid the tax, in each county, city, and town, which has been happily preserved †. And, from this fubfidy * 4th Henry VII. ch. 19; which is published in the Ap-, pendix to Pickering's Statutes, vol. xxiii. † This record, so instructive as to the ftate of England at the demife of Edward III. was laid before the Antiquary Society, in December 1784, by Mr. Topham of the PaperOffice; a gentleman, whofe curious research, with regard to the jurisprudence and hiftory of his country, as well as communicative difpofition, merits the greatest praife. Mr. Topham obferved, that the fum collected, in confequence of the fubfidy |