_Concerning the proportions of People in the eight eminent Cities of
Christendom undernamed_, viz.:—
1. WE have by the number of burials in healthful years, and by the
proportion of the living to those who die yearly, as also by the number
of houses and families within the 134 parishes called London, and the
estimate of the heads in each, pitched upon the number of people in that
city to be at a medium 695,718.
2. We have, by allowing that at Paris above 80,000 families, viz.,
81,280, do live in 23,223 houses, 32 palaces, and 38 colleges, or that
there are 81,280 kitchens within less than 24,000 street doors; as also
by allowing 30 heads for every one that died necessarily there; we have
pitched upon the number of people there at a medium to be 488,055, nor
have we restrained them to 300,000, by allowing with Monsieur Auzout 6
heads for each of Moreri’s 50,000 houses or families.
3. To Amsterdam we allow 187,350 souls, viz., 30 times the number of
their burials, which were 6,245 in the year 1685.
4. To Venice we allow 134,000 souls, as found there in a special account
taken by authority, about ten years since, when the city abounded with
such as returned from Candia, then surrendered to the Turks.
5. To Rome we allow 119,000 Christians, and 6,000 Jews, in all 125,000
souls, according to an account sent thither of the same by Monsieur
Auzout.
6. To Dublin we allow (as to Amsterdam) 30 times its burials, the medium
whereof for the last two years is 2,303, viz., 69,090 souls.
7. As to Bristol, we say that if the 6,400 houses of Dublin give 69,090
people, that the 5,307 houses of Bristol must give above 56,000 people.
Moreover, if the 29,325 hearths of Dublin give 69,090 people, the 16,752
hearths of Bristol must give about 40,000; but the medium of 56,000 and
40,000 is 48,000.
8. As for Rouen, we have no help, but Monsieur Auzout’s fancy of 80,000
souls to be in that city, and the conjecture of knowing men that Rouen is
between the one-seventh and one-eighth part of Paris, and also that it is
by a third bigger than Bristol; by all which, we estimate, till farther
light, that Rouen hath at most but 66,000 people in it.
Now it may be wondered why we mentioned Rouen at all, having had so
little knowledge of it; whereunto we answer, that we did not think it
just to compare London with Paris, as to shipping and foreign trade,
without adding Rouen thereunto, Rouen being to Paris as that part of
London which is below the bridge, is to what is above it.
All which we heartily submit to the correction of the curious and candid,
in the meantime observing according to the gross numbers under-mentioned.
London 696,000
Paris 488,000
Amsterdam 187,000
Venice 134,000
Rome 125,000
Dublin 69,000
Bristol 48,000
Rouen 66,000
_Observations on the said Eight Cities_.