it INTRODUCTION. 
of ufeful matter as may prove worthy of the publick atten- 
tion. His official intercourfe with ingenious men has 
operated as a ftimulus to a ftatement of opinions, which, 
however they may have originally occurred to his own 
mind, he has deemed important in proportion as they have 
been ftrengthened by the correfpondent reflections of others, 
whom it is his duty to refpeét. Andas con(ftant experience 
has proved to him, that among the numerous members, 
with whom it is his privilege and pleafure to converfe, many 
are found who would be relutant to give their thoughts in 
writing, to which they are not accuftomed ; or to have their 
names quoted for particular opinions, however worthy of 
being publifhed; he feels it his duty to endeavour to confo- 
lidate thofe opinions in the beft manner he can. Witha 
‘view to the difcharge of fuch a publick duty, the fol- 
lowing ftatements are made.— The thoughts may often be 
no otherwife new, or valuable, than as they have refulted 
from new occafions of remark, and frefh convictions of their ~ 
importance, under new occurrences, in the domeftick fitua- 
tion of our country. * . 
The great objects of fuch a fociety as this, are the pro- 
motion of thofé various improvements in the management 
of land, which are at once called for by a general publick 
duty, and by the particular ixcreafe.of population, which is 
naturally to-be expeéted in an orderly and liberal commu- 
“nity; an increafe which is now generally confidered'as a 
very important matter of factin this kingdom. | 
Political calculations have varied, and may be expected 
to vary, about the degree of an increa/ing population, as well , 
as refpe€ting the publick benefit of an augmentation of num- 
bers; but taking it as a fact, that an increafing call for the 
neceflaries of human life exifts, (and few will be found to 
doubt it) the duty of an adequate induftry in ufing the 
means 
