The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-03-20

nnRnsn IOWA ned over o,OUO Inhabitants
though thirty.six more were separately as
sessed and returned. In ton counties mot in
, Guiding the four unassessed) no town wa!
, thought worthy Of separate return. Eng
7 land at this time. and for many year aftel
this date. was essentially rural, and not little
OF its economical history Is bound up and de
rived from the country life which Its inhab
itants lived for centuries.
We pass on to the third ground OF Mr.. Rog
ers's belief that the population OF England was
stationary In the fourteenth. fifteenth. and
sixteenth centuries. A good many years age
hefound in the Public Record Offlce among d
mass OF papers OF Henry Wills roign. an emu.
meratton OF the people dwelling in nine Kent.
ish hundreds on the eastern slde Of the coun.
ty. Kent was In tho first half OF tho sixteenth
century decidedly prosperous part OF Eng.
land. and these hundreds are In the most fer.
tile agricultural district OF the county. They
contained no large town at that time and con-
tain none now. In Henry Wills time the pop
uiation OF these hundreds was IA .S13: In 1851
1t was 5000. or almost exactly six times as
much as 1t was moro than three centuries boz
fore. This proportion almost precisely corre-
spends with that which the author derived
from the rate Of agricultural production and
the poll tax OF 1871 The conclusion is that
for upward oftwo centuries. just as there had
been no improvement In the art OF agriculture
30 there was no increase in the population.
Proceeding to the last half OF the sixteenth
century Mr. Rogers finds some interesting
evidence in the extant surveys OF eight par
ishes. seven OF which were comprised in the
estates OF All Souls College. On the survey
ers' maps tho houses In the several parishes
are marked. Assigning four and half per-
sons to each OF the 260 houses-even In those
days OF overcrowding the census alots only
five and a half to ahouse-the population Of the
eight parishes was In Elizabeth's time 1850.
These parishes. which are still rural. as they
| we're then. had at tho census OF 1851 (which
throughout his writings Mr.. Rogers makes
the basis OF comparison) 1921 Inhabitants.
that is to say. more than six and half times as
many people rs there were at the close OF the
| sixteenth century. We should mention that
although the author infers that there was no
material increase OF England's population in
the sixteenth century. he admits certain in
flow Of immigrants from Flanders. owing to
the persecution OF the Protestants there.
H. now. We skip hundred years. we find it
pronounced certain that at the end OF the sew
| enteenth century the population was more
than double that which the author has calou-
lated for England at the conclusion OF the six
teenth. Here. again. there are several proofs.
Of which Macaulav has mentioned three. First
that based on the hearth-taX returns Of 1890.
me second Is an estimate made Tor William
- ot tle relklo"s sects IN England. me
.hl,a = conparatlIeiy recent computation
oy MI. riniayson' derived from examining tho
oiu REGISTERS Oh o1ptlsms. marriages. and
Duriais. 10 enese Mr. rogers aodssthe evil
aenoe oerivea from the produce OF grain. he
mas no aouoe .hat IN average years. after al
lowing lot inc enclosures Wnich had been
maze. oouoie the amount OF grain was reaped
thaE had been reapeda century before. Still
ne does not thinK the increased yield OF agri-
culture the sole reason Tor tho growth OF the
population. lie inds another cause In
the general pacihcation OF the Dor
der ana the settlement OF the northern
eounties by weavers. Finally. during
the eighteenth century the population again
nearly doubled. Here the cause was three
fold the growth OF the towns. due In many
cases to the immigration OF the banished HUI
guenots: the extension OF the new agriculture:
the rapid growth OF invention. OF mechanical
skill. and OF trade. AS population grew how
ever. toward the close OF the eighteenth CEN
fury 1t sank deeper and deeper into misery.
MIR. Rogers does not hesitate to charge that this
misery was the deliberate act OF the legislature.
OF the Justices assessments OF the enclosures.
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