Science and Commerce; to stimulate Science to every exertion likely to prove serviceable to the Commercial Energies of the community; to furnish Commerce with the means of affording to Science and her followers, every facility of research and experiment; to invite Science within your walls, and to establish, on a wise, an enlarged, and a dignified plan,-on a plan suited to the high character of a British Merchant,-such Institutions as that, which the ceremony of this day has placed under the protection of the City of London, and her opulent, honourable, and discerning sons.

That to deserve well of their country is Their earnest wish, we all know; now, power or superfluous wealth is seldom so well employed, as in the encouragement of those, whose labours increase the knowledge, refine the taste, or elevate the genius of their countrymen; and those, who are desirous of fair fame, have no such certain means of attaining it, as connecting their names with great Literary Institutions, and thus securing the gratitude of the Artist and the Scholar.

THE

STATE

OF THE

UNITED KINGDOM,

AT THE

PEACE OF PARIS,
November 20, 1815,

RESPECTING THE PEOPLE; THEIR DOMESTIC ENERGIES; THEIR AGRICULTURE; THEIR TRADE; THEIR SHIPPING; AND THEIR FINANCES.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.-2 COR.

BY GEORGE CHALMERS, F. R. S, S. A.

AUTHOR OF CONSIDERATIONS ON COMMERCE, BULLION, AND COIN, CIRCULATION AND EXCHANGES.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON.

ADVERTISEMENT.

HE, who sometimes publishes big books, may seem to have a right to publish a little book.

Having communicated the following Statements, in manuscript, to a few friends, who were struck with the efficacy of their information, I was advised to publish them. I hesitated: but seeing that a pamphlet had been circulated at Paris, with some applause, inculcating THE DECLINE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, I no longer delayed to send to the press the irrefragable documents, which evince, that the British Nation is most prosperous in all which constitutes opulence, and power, while it enjoys unrivalled glory, as much from its perseverance in a noble cause, as from its valour, and its conduct.

THE

STATE

OF THE

UNITED KINGDOM.

AFTER SO violent a convulsion in Europe, with its natural effects, a war of two and twenty years' continuance, it is a very reasonable wish, to inquire what has been its real consequences to Great Britain and Ireland, in the genuine sources of their energies, and their wealth.

I. OF THE PEOPLE.

In every inquiry of this kind, the people are the chief object whether they have increased, or diminished, throughout so long a struggle, is a question of great importance. During the war of 1756, it was disputed, between Brakenridge and Foster, whether the people had increased, or diminished, and what was their amount? but without any decision. During the colonial war, Doctor Price revived the same question; but he was more successfully opposed; he insisted, that there could not be more than 5,000,000 of inhabitants in England and Wales: his opponents shewed, from very sufficient documents, that there were, in England and Wales, upwards of 8,447,000

souls. These contrarieties of opinion were at length settled by the parliamentary enumeration of 1801, which, in opposition to the doctrine of Dr. Price, found in England and Wales 9,340,000 souls: but did the population continue to increase during the subsequent war? Yes; as the people had continued to multiply during the wars of 1756 and 1776, so did they multiply during the war of 1803; for the parliamentary enumeration of 1811 found, in England and Wales, 10,150,615. The state of the inhabitants of Scotland, at successive periods, gives the same result in 1801 the enumeration found 1,618,303 souls in that country, the enumeration of 1811 found 1,805,000. The same observation equally applies to Ireland: the population of Ireland, when the Union was formed, in 1800, was supposed to be 4,000,000; by the late imperfect enumeration, in 1814, it appeared that Ireland contained near 6,000,000 of people. It is a fact, then, that the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland have increased, during the late long wars, to 17,208,918 souls, and continue to increase and multiply.

II.-OF THE DOMESTIC ENTERPRIZES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The best evidence of those enterprizes, together with their extent, and of their increase, is the Journals of Parliament. From this record, we know how many Acts of Parliament have passed, session after session, for making local improvements of every kind, during the last thirty years, of which there have been so many periods of distressful hostilities.