easy 
N°. VIL. . 
Obfervations on the probabilities of the Duration of Human 
Life, and the progre/s of Population, inthe United States 
of America; in a Letter from WiLLIAM BARTON, EEO. 
to Davip Rirrennouse, L.L. D. Prefident, A. P.S. 
DEAR SIR, 
Read Mar. J BEG leave to communicate to our Philofo- 
*, 479% HA phical fociety, the following obfervations, on 
the probabilities of the duration of human life, in this 
country ;—-and, likewife, on the progre/s of its population ; 
together with the caufes which accelerate that progreffli- 
on, ina degree unparalleled elfewhere. By comparing the 
refults, with fimilar eftimates made for fome European 
countries—the advantages on the fide of the United States, 
in thefe refpects, will be readily difcerned. 
There is not, perhaps, any political axiom better efta~ 
blithed, than this,—That a high degree of * population 
contributes greatly to the riches and ftrength ofa ftate. 
In fact, the progreflive increafe of numbers, in the peo- 
ple of any civilized country, is reciprocally the caufe and 
effe& of its real wealth: and, therefore, there cannot be 
a furer criterion by which we may judge, whether a na- 
tion be, in reality, on therife or on the decline, than by ob- 
ferving, whether the number of its inhabitants increafe or 
diminith. . 
If, then, numbers of people conftitute (or, at leaft, con- 
tribute to) the ftrength and riches of a ftate; that coun- 
try, whofe population is rapidly advancing, may fairly 
be faid to be increafing in both thefe concomitants of na- 
tional profperity, with proportionable celerity. For, if a 
country exhibits fo unequivocal a teft of ftrength and 
VOL. IU. D riches, 
* “The encouragement of population ought to be one of the firft objects of policy, in eve~ 
sy State.” Dr. Price. 
