Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/47

state by taxation, as is done in Holland. They should be taught some trade. Their value, from this point of view, without such training is small, for unskilled labor is in reality dearer than skilled labor. The small number of murders occurring in London compared with Paris, he accounts for by the free character of the English constitution, London being guarded by free citizens. About twenty-six pages are given up to an investigation of the plague, and the history and characteristics of other maladies. In chapter vii, after making due allowance for the inaccuracy of the lists of christenings, he reaches the conclusion that in London the death rate is higher than the birth rate. On the other hand, it is certain that the number of buildings in London has increased, and many houses have been changed into tenements. The deficiency must have been made up by immigration from the country. Many provincial towns have notably decreased in population. But the country bills always show an excess of christenings over burials. What is the proportion between London and the rest of the country in population? By a very rough computation based on the number of people to a square mile in a typical market town, multiplied by the whole number of square miles, he finds the population to be 6,400,000 for England and Wales. London is about one-fourteenth of this, because it bears about that proportion of the whole taxation. Then follows an attempt to account for the excessive mortality in London. In chapter viii he notices that there are more males born than females. He remarks that this fact is borne out by all the lists that he has seen, and wonders if it holds good for other countries. The next chapter discusses