It must be supposed that these able-bodied men consisted of such only as were registered, otherwise the small number is not to be accounted for.

Yet Sir Edward Coke[****] said, in the house of commons, that he was employed about the same time, together with Popham, chief justice, to take a survey of all the people of England, and that they found them to be nine hundred thousand of all sorts.

This number, by the ordinary rules of computation, supposes that there were above two hundred thousand men able to bear arms.

Yet even this number is surprisingly small.

Can we suppose that the kingdom is six or seven times more populous at present?
and that Murden's was the real number of men, excluding Catholics, and children, and infirm persons?
* Lives of the Admirals, vol.i.p.