Governments shew the infancy of a Country for from single Family-government first began those Governments were but so many families of great Men Now the large Boundaries that so many little Governments take up in a Country make one half of the Country useless For men are afraid to plant or sow too near their enemies Country for fear they should lose their Harvest Therefore the same Land cannot feed so many people as when it is under but one Government Besides without Arts a great number of People cannot live together the earth by the arts of Husbandry produceth ten times more food than it can naturally And neither can there be any great Cities for the Inhabitants have nothing to exchange for their food for it is the Arts of the City which are paid for the provisions of the Country To conclude nothing is so plain from ancient History as that Asia was first peopled and according to the Description of Moses began about Babylon And as Mankind increased and the Country filled with Inhabitants Arts were invented and they possest more ground till they spread themselves into Egypt and so over Africa and from thence into Greece over Europe and now Europe being full their swarm begins to fill America And all the ancient Descriptions of the Countries of Europe in the times of the Roman Greatness are just such as are now given of America and differs vastly from what they are now in the number of Cities Towns and Arts of Inhabitants For were America so well peopled as Europe is those great Countries that are possest there by the Spaniards French Dutch and English some of them bigger than their own Countries in Europe could not be so quietly held and injoyed by not a hundredth part of the people of their own Country And although the valor of the Roman Soldiers and their affected Bravery grown as it were a fashion and a popular Emulation conduced much to the greatness of the Roman Empire yet nothing promoted its success so much and gave it such large extent as the Infancy of Europe at that time being thinly inhabited with people without Arts and full of little Monarchies aud States For had it not been so Caesar could never have over-run Gallia Belgia Britany and some part of Germany and kept them in subjection with only ten Legions of Soldiers which was but fifty thousand men for we have seen within these late years much greater Armies in Belgia alone that is within the Seventeen Provinces and amongst them men not inferior either in courage or skill in War and yet have not wholly subdued one Province And perhaps had these Forces at the same time been sent into America they might have extended their conquest over as much ground and over as many people as Caesar did Nor was England so populous then as now it is For had it been Caesar would never at first have ventured to invade it with two Legions and at the second time when he designed a full conquest brought over with him but five Legions that is but five and twenty thousand men For although some may think from the great Armies we read of neer two Millions of men under Cyrus and Xerxes in Asia and of vast swarms of the Goths and Vandals in Europe in their Invasions under King Attila and others that the world was more populous than now because we hear of no such numbers of late yet if it be considered it demonstrates only the manner of their fighting and the infancy of the world The want of people and Arts rather than that it was populous For the Gentiles Armies were made up after the manner of the Jews by taking all that were able to bear Armes reckoning from about 20 years old to sixty For when Caesar had slain the Army of the Nervii being about 50000 men a valiant people one of the Seventeen Provinces the old men and Women Petitioning for mercy declared that there was not 500 men left in the whole Nation that were able to bear Arms. And if the King of England should reckon his Army after this manner Of his eight Million of Subjects as they are computed to be there could not be less than three Millions that were able to bear Armes which would be a greater Army than ever we read of which must shew that the world was thin of People since the Assyrian Empire the oldest and therefore most populous did never raise so great a number And those great numbers shew that they wanted Arts for we read that the Athenians a small but learned people baffled and destroyed all the great Army of Xerxes reckoned by some to be Seventeen hundred thousand men And Alexander with a small number of skilful and valiant Greeks subdued the then inhabited World And although the Goths and Vandals and the Cold parts of the World made their Invasion for want of room to live in yet that proceeded from the want of Arts. For by Arts the Earth is made more fruitful and by the invention of the Compass and Printing the World is made more habitable and conversable By the first the Countries Traffick and Exchange the Commodities they abound with for those they want The Timber Pitch and Tarr of the cold Countries are Exchanged for the Wine Brandy and Spices of the hot By the latter all Arts are easier discovered By Traffick and Arts the Inhabitants of the cold Countries are better fed better clothed and better lodged which make them indure the Extremities of their Climates better than formerly and as they increase they build new Towns inlarge their Cities and improve their own Country instead of invading and destroying their Neighbours But to return home It is plain that the natural increase of Mankind is the cause of the increase of the City and that there are no more Houses built every year in it than are necessary for the growth of the Inhabitants As will somewhat appear by the number of Apprentices made free and Marriages every year in the City By the best computation that I can learn there are no less than ten thousand Married every year in the City which is no great number considering the number of Inhabitants And if we should allow two Weddings in a Parish every week one with another there being a hundred and thirty Parishes in all it will much exceed this proportion Now in some Parishes there is seldom less than ten in a week And in Dukes-place and St. Katharine's being priviledg'd places there is ordinarily twenty or thirty in a week As to the number of Apprentices that come every year out of their time there are not less than Nine thousand which will not be thought too great a number if we reckon the Houses in the City to be about Fourscore thousand And if the fourth part of this number be allowed for the Gentry or those which live without Trades or Professions and the three other parts being Sixty thousand for Trades or Professions and one
and reaped every year as there is occasion for and sometimes more For the Crown in some years hath been at charge to Export it And there is as much Wooll provided and made into Clothes and Stuffs as the Market can take off and so for all other Commodities of the Country Nay there are more of all the Country Commodities every year made than formerly There are more Stuffs more Clothes sent up to Gerard's and Blackwell-Hall as appears by the Entries of those Halls and more Sheep and Oxen sent to London and eaten than formerly For there are more people in the City to be fed so that there must be more hands in the Country to provide this greater quantity of Commodities And the Country does increase as well as the City as hath been already observed from the Doomsday-Book Therefore if the Rents of the Lands fall in the Country it must not be ascrib'd to the New-Buildings draining their Inhabitants but to some other occasions Which probably may be from the great improvements that are made upon the Land in the Country either by draining of Fens improving of Land by Zanfoin or other profitable Seeds inclosing of grounds or disparking and plowing of Parks by which means the Markets are over stock'd and furnished at a cheaper rate than those Lands can affford who have had no advantage from improvements Or else the Market is removed at a greater distance and the Lands are forced to abate in their price for the carriage The Town perhaps is decayed that they used to furnish and the Trade removed to some other flourishing place at a greater distance occasioned some times by the death or removal of some great Clothier or Trader or some other natural obstruction of the place as the choaking up of some Haven and the forsaking of the Sea which is the reason of the decay of the Cinque-Ports These or some other occasions may make some particular mens Farms fall in value but there is never a County in England where the Land of the whole County doth not produce a third part more in value than it did within a 100 years and whosoever will compare these present Rents with what they were then will find them generally increased Therefore the New Buildings of this City cannot prejudice the Country but are greatly advantageous to it Of the Effects of the New Buildings as they relate to the Government 1. NEW Buildings are advantageous to the King and Government They are instrumental to the preserving and increasing of the number of the Subjects And numbers of Subjects is the strength of a Prince for Houses are Hives for the People to breed and swarm in without which they cannot increase And unless they are provided for them from time to time in proportion to their increase they would be forced to go into the Plantations and other Countries for habitations and so many times become the Subjects of other Princes but at the best the Country loseth the profit of feeding them for they that live in a City are unskilful and unfit for Country-life and this is the reason why so many Scotch Citizens are wandring Pedlers and that every Town in Europe hath a Scotchman for an Inhabitant And that this will be the Effects will appear plainly by examining the growth of the City of London since the Buildings have flourished with its condition when the Buildings were prohibited And we cannot make a better discovery of it than by the Bills of Mortality for it is reasonable among such a number of Mankind such a number should die and whether it be in such a proportion as one in three and thirty as Mr. Grant and Sir William Petit have observed is not not so material to this purpose but it is a certain demonstration That if the Burials have increased the number of Citizens hath increased though the proportion may be uncertain Now to begin the Observation from the first Bills that were Printed which was in the year 1606 for the space of six and seven and twenty years we shall find very little increase in the City for in 1606 and 1607 there died between six and seven thousand a year and in the years 1632 and 1633 there died betwixt eight and nine thousand Now the reason of this was the People of England were a little before that time under the same mistake as they are generally now and cried out against the Builders that the City would grow too big and therefore in the 38 of Queen Elizabeth they made a Law to prohibit Buildings in the City of London which though it was but a probationary Act to continue only to the next Sessions of Parliament which was but a short time yet its effects were long For it frighted the Builders and obstructed the growth of the City and none built for thirty years after all King James his Reign without his Majesties License But for want of Houses the increase of the People went into other parts of the world For within this space of time were those great Plantations of New England Virginia Mariland and Burmudas began and that this want of Houses was the occasion is plain For they could not build in the Country because of the Law against Cottages For people may get children and so increase that had not four Acres of ground to Build on But the People of England at last were convinced of this popular error and petitioned in Parliament his Majesties K. Charles the Martyr that he would take his restraint from the Builders and if the next period of seven and twenty years be examined wherein there was a greater liberty of Building though in this space there was a great Rebellion and Civil Wars which is a great allay to the growth of the People yet there appeareth a much greater increase of the City of London For in the years 1656 and 1657 the Burials were twelve and thirteen thousand But the flourishing condition of the City of Londen raised a new clamour against the Builders and Oliver the Usurper glad of any pretence to raise a Tax made use of this clamor and laid it upon the new Foundations but though it was an heavy and unjust Tax upon the Builders yet he got little by it for the whole Summ collected was but Twenty thousand Pounds clear of all charges as appears by the Records of the Exchequer however it had the same ill effects to stop the Builders and growth of the City for the People for want of Houses in that time began that great and flourishing Plantation of Jamaica Now if the last Period since his Majesties happy Restauration be examined wherein the Builders have had the greatest liberty it will appear that the Inhabitants of the City have increased more than in both of the former Periods for the yearly Bills of Mortality are now betwixt two and three and twenty thousands so that the City is since increased one third and as much as in sixty years before This is
sufficient to shew that a Nation cannot increase without the Metropolis be inlarged and how dangerous a consequence it may be to obstruct its growth and discourage the Builders It is to banish the People and confine the Nation to an Infant Estate while the Neighbouring Nations grow to the full strength of Manhood and thereby to render it an easie conquest to its enemies For the Metropolis is the heart of a Nation through which the Trade and Commodities of it circulate like the blood through the heart which by its motion giveth life and growth to the rest of the Body and if that declines or be obstructed in its growth the whole body falls into consumption And it is the only symptome to know the health and thriving of a Country by the inlarging of its Metropolis for the chief City of every Nation in the world that flourisheth doth increase And if those Gentlemen that fancy the City to be the Head of the Nation would but fancy it like the heart they would never be afraid of its growing too big For I never read of such a disease that the Heart was too big for the Body And if we are of Machiavel's opinion this simile is the best for he saith that Citizens make no good Counsellors for having raised their Fortunes by Parsimony and Industry they are usually too severe in punishing of Vice and too niggardly in rewarding of Vertue 2. It is the interest of the Government to incourage the Builders not only because they preserve and increase the Subjects but they provide an imploy for them by which they are fed and get their livelihood There are three great ways that the People in all Governments are imployed in In provividing Food Clothes and Houses Now those ways are most serviceable to the Government that imploy most of the People Those that are imployed in feeding of them are the fewest in number for ten men may provide food enough for a thousand but to cloth and build Houses for them requireth many hands And there is that peculiar advantage that ought to be ascribed to the Builder that he provideth the place of birth for all the other Arts as well as for man The Cloth cannot be made without houses to work it in Now besides the vast numbers of People that are imployed in digging and making the Materials the Bricks Stone Iron Lead c. all those Trades that belong to the furnishing of an house have their sole dependencies on the Builders as the Upholsterers Chair-makers c. But that which is the greatest advantage they do not only provide a Livelihood to those that belong to the building and furnishing of Houses but for the Tenants of those New Houses For the People being collected and living together in one Street they serve and trade one with another For Trade is nothing else but an exchange of one mans labour for another as for instance supposing an hundred men which lived at great distance before some in Cornwall others in Yorkshire and so dispersed over all the Countries in England live together in one Street one is a Baker the other a Brewer a Shoo-maker Taylor c. and so in one Trade or other the whole hundred are imployed The Baker gets his living by making Bread for the other ninety and so do all the rest of them which while they were dispersed at distances were useless and could not serve one another and were ready to starve for want of a Livelihood 3. But they get not only a Livelihood but grow rich There ariseth an emulation among them to out-live and out-vye one another in Arts. This forceth them to be industrious and by industry they grow rich 4. The increasing of Buildings and inlarging of Towns preserveth the peace of a Nation by rendring the People more easily governed First it is the Builders interest of all sorts of men to preserve peace Every man that buildeth an House gives Security to the Government for his good behaviour For War is the Builders ruin The Countryman may expect to enjoy his Land again though for a time it be laid wast the Merchant may hide his Goods or remove them but when the Town is besieged the Houses are fired the place made desolate and nothing is left to the Builder but ruins the sad remembrance of his condition Besides all Cities are more inclined to Peace than the Country the Citizens Estates are in Trade and in Goods many of which grow useless in War and lye in other Peoples hands and their Debters run away and take Sanctuary under the Sword And Citizens being usually rich cannot endure the hardship of War Next great Cities are more easily Governed because they are under the eye of the Prince as generally the Metropolis is or else under some Governour who by his rewards from the Crown is engaged to be very watchful in preserving the Peace so that if they should grow factious they are more easily corrected Thus the Ottoman Power governs his Conquest by destroying Villages and lesser Towns and driving the People into Capital Cities which by the presence of some Basha are governed Thus the King of France in his late Conquests in Flanders and Alsatia burnt some hundreds of Villages but Luxembourg Strasbourg and other great Towns are preserved And the bigger the City the more advantageous to the Government for from thence they are on a sudden the better supplied with Men and Ammunition to suppress any Rebellion or oppose a Foreign Enemy Lastly New Buildings increase his Majesties Revenues not only by the Chimney-Money which makes it a growing Revenue but by the Customs paid for the Materials to build and furnish the Houses Besides they being the cause of the increase of the City all the increase of the Revenues from the Excise and Customs since the Cities increase must be ascribed to them which are a fourth part more than they were five and twenty years ago And the Excise is not only increased in the City but it is so in the Country which must not be ascribed solely to the good Management but chiefly to the natural increase of the People For if there be a third part more People in the City than there were five and twenty years ago there must be a proportionable increase in the Country to provide Food and Clothes for them To conclude It was upon these considerations That by the building and inlarging of a City the people are made great rich and easily governed That those ancient and famous Governments Thebes Athens Sparta Carthage and Rome began their Dominions and inlarged them with their Cities and of late the States of Holland have followed these Examples The Citizens of Amsterdam have thrice flung down their Walls to inlarge it so that from a little Fisher-Town within less than 200 years it is become the third or fourth City of Europe and the rest of their Cities have followed their Pattern and made Grafts and Streets at the charge of the Government endeavouring to outvie one another by giving Priviledges to incourage the Builders and Inhabitants And these States have found the effects of it for by this means they have changed their Style from the Poor Distressed States as they wrote to Queen Elizabeth to the High and Mighty States of the United Provinces And if the City of London hath made such a Progress within this five and twenty years as to have grown one third bigger and become already the Metropolis of Europe notwithstanding the Popular Error the Nation have been infected with and the ill censures and discouragements the Builders have met with had they been for this last hundred years encouraged by the Government the City of London might probably have easily grown three times bigger than now it is And if we consider what the natural effects of so great a City must have been To be furnished with such large Provisions for War suitable to its greatness Such a vast number of Ships being situate on an Island and Navigable River filled with innumerable Inhabitants of such natural courage as the English are and to be so easily transported on a sudden with all things necessary for War it would long before this time have been a Terror to all Europe and now would have had the opportunity under the Government of such a Martial Prince as now reigns to be made the Metropolis of the World to have caused England's Monarch to be acknowledged Lord of all the Navigable Cities and Sea-port-Towns in the World to have made an Universal Monarchy over the Seas an Empire no less glorious and of much more profit than of the Land and of larger extent than either Caesar's or Alexander's FINIS