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ESSAY on the BEST METHOD of ASCERTAINING the 

 AREAS of COUNTRIES of CONSIDERABLE EXTENT. 

 By the Rev. JAMES WHITELAW, ricar of St. Catherine, 

 Dublin, and M. R. I. A. 



jyiODERN geographers, and particularly thofe of Germany, ReajArl 

 have, of late years, cultivated a fcience to which they have given ^5' i795- 

 the name of Statrjlics, the objedl of which is, to afcertain the 

 extent, population, denfity of population, military and naval 

 force, revenues, national debt, &c. of the various ftates of Eu- 

 rope. This fcience, interefling to every enlightened mind, and 

 peculiarly fo to the ftateCnan, is, as yet, in its infancy ; and that 

 particular branch of it, which enables us to determine the areas 

 or fuperficial contents of countries, has been hitherto fo negledl- 

 ed, or conduded on fuch erroneous principles, that the calcu- 

 lations of different authors are perfedly inconfiftent with each 

 other, and with truth. Some areas in our tables are, it muft 

 be acknowledged, fufficiently accurate; but as truth and error 

 are advanced with equal confidence, and equal authority, fuch 

 are xifelefs to the reader, who, incompetent to make a feledion, 

 cannot proportion his afTent to their merit. 



Vol. VI. I The 



