A fourth thing observable from my numbers is, that the quantity of people allotted to a house is too big in all former calculations: for if we divide 425, the number of people, by 90, the number of houses, it gives but 4.72, which is not quite 4¾ to a house; and therefore 5 to a house, I believe, is as much as ought to be allowed, taking the nation all together. Now if the number of houses, taken in Queen Anne’s time, be any thing near the right, with one fourth more allowed for cottages, according to Dr. Brackenridge’s computation, we shall make the people in England, allowing 5 to a house, to be only 4,556,550. which appears, at first sight, to be too small a number. However, of Shefford I would beg leave to observe, (and it is far from being the poorest of villages) that more than two thirds of all the houses are downright cottages, and must be excluded, one as much as another, from any proposed assessment. Upon this foundation we must grant, that at least half the houses in England, take towns and all together, must be cottages, and plead an exemption from taxation all alike. And thus the number of houses will be 1,458,096. which, multiplied by 5, will give us the number of people, 7,290,480. If to this we add the proposed increase, 789,558. we shall have 8,080,038 for the number of people now alive in England. The fifth and last thing I would observe from my numbers is, that we may hence guess at the number of people in the whole kingdom: for if 1871, the good acres in Shefford, demand 425 persons for their cultivation, then will 25,300,000 good acres in England require 5,704,168 for the cultivation of the land only. Now supposing one third part of the people only to live in towns, above what is necessary for the cultivation of the land belonging to such towns, then we must add 2,852,084 to the above sum, which gives us 8,556,252 for the number of people in England. It may probably here be said, that this is but little better than reckoning at random. Indeed I allow it is so. But then I must beg leave to observe, that it has full as good a foundation to stand upon, as any calculation, that I have seen hitherto advanced. It has one _datum_, viz. a certain number of persons to a certain number of acres. It ought to be noted at the same time, that we are an inland place, have no sort of manufacture carried on, and consequently no accession of strangers. If we examine the calculation arising from the consumption of wheat, we shall see some reason to suspect, that the number of inhabitants in England is not short of eight millions. I am persuaded I do not exaggerate, when I affirm, that three fourths of the people north of Trent, and in Wales, do not eat wheat: and as this is near a third part of England, it will follow, that one fourth of the whole is left out of the calculation, and that we must add near two millions to it to make it complete.