7.  Twelve ways whereby to try any proposal pretended for the public good.

8.  How the city of London may be made (morally speaking) invincible.

9.  A help to uniformity in religion.

10.  That it is possible to increase mankind by generation four times more than at present.

11.  The plagues of London is the chief impediment and objection against the growth of the city.

12.  That an exact account of the people is necessary in this matter.

OF THE GROWTH OF THE CITY OF LONDON:  And of the Measures, Periods, Causes, and Consequences thereof

By the city of London we mean the housing within the walls of the old city, with the liberties thereof, Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and so much of the built ground in Middlesex and Surrey, whose houses are contiguous unto, or within call of those aforementioned.  Or else we mean the housing which stand upon the ninety-seven parishes within the walls of London; upon the sixteen parishes next without them; the six parishes of Westminster, and the fourteen out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, contiguous to the former, all which, 133 parishes, are comprehended within the weekly bills of mortality.

The growth of this city is measured. (1) By the quantity of ground, or number of acres upon which it stands. (2) By the number of houses, as the same appears by the hearth-books and late maps. (3) By the cubical content of the said housing. (4) By the flooring of the same. (5) By the number of days’ work, or charge of building the said houses. (6) By the value of the said houses, according to their yearly rent, and number of years’ purchase. (7) By the number of inhabitants; according to which latter sense only we make our computations in this essay.

Till a better rule can be obtained, we conceive that the proportion of the people may be sufficiently measured by the proportion of the burials in such years as were neither remarkable for extraordinary healthfulness or sickliness.

That the city hath increased in this latter sense appears from the bills of mortality represented in the two following tables, viz., one whereof is a continuation for eighteen years, ending 1682, of that table which was published in the 117th page of the book of the observations upon the London bills of mortality, printed in the year 1676.  The other showeth what number of people died at a medium of two years, indifferently taken, at about twenty years’ distance from each other.

The first of the said two tables.

A.D. 97 16 Out Buried Besides of Christened
     Parishes Parishes Parishes in all the Plague
1665 5,320 12,463 10,925 28,708 68,596 9,967 1666 1,689 3,969 5,082 10,740 1,998 8,997 1667 761 6,405 8,641 15,807 35 10,938 1668 796 6,865