It may not be uninteresting to allude rather briefly to the state of England at the close of the seventeenth century. Geoffrey King, who wrote in 1696, gives the first reliable statistics about the state of the country. He estimated the number of houses at 1,300,000, and the average at four to each house, making the population 5,318,000. He says there was but seven acres of land for each person, but that England was six times better peopled than the known world, and twice better than Europe. He calculated the total income at L43,500,000, of which the yearly rent of land was L10,000,000. The income was equal to L7, 18s. 0d. per head, and the expense L7, 11s. 4d.; the yearly increase, 6s. 8d. per head, or L1,800,000 per annum. He estimated the annual income of 160 temporal peers at L2800 per annum, 26 spiritual peers at L1300, of 800 baronets at L800, and of 600 knights at L650. He estimated the area at 39,000,000 acres (recent surveys make it 37,319,221). He estimated the arable land at 11,000,000 acres, and pasture and meadow at 10,000,000, a total of 21,000,000. The area under all kinds of crops and permanent pasture was, in 1874, 26,686,098 acres; therefore about five and a half million acres have been reclaimed and added to the arable land. As the particulars of his estimate may prove interesting, I append them in a note. [Footnote--Geoffrey King thus classifies the land of England and Wales: Acres. Value/Acre Rent Arable Land, 11,000,000 L0 5 10 L3,200,000 Pasture and Meadow, 10,000,000 0 9 0 4,500,000 Woods and Coppices, 3,000,000 0 5 0 750,000 Forests, Parks, and Covers, 3,000,000 0 3 6 550,000 Moors, Mountains, and Barren Lands, 10,000,000 0 1 0 500,000 Houses, Homesteads, Gardens, Orchards,) 1,000,000 (The Land, 450,000 Churches, and Churchyards, ) (The Buildings, 2,000,000 Rivers, Lakes, Meres, and Ponds, 500,000 0 2 0 50,000 Roadways and Waste Lands, 500,000 ---------- ------- ---------- 39,000,000 L0 6 0 L12,000,000 He estimates the live stock thus: Value without the Skin Beeves, Stirks, and Calves, 4,500,000 L2 0 0 L9,000,000 Sheep and Lambs, 11,000,000 0 8 0 4,400,000 Swine and Pigs, 2,000,000 0 16 0 1,600,000 Deer, Fawns, Goats and Kids, 247,900 15,247,900