H 



i^pi, agriccltuual news. 33^ 



Agricultural News. 



•SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURE IN LISBON, 



Though rortugal has made fmall advances as yet in the 

 ftudy of Agriculture, they now begin to turn their atten- 

 tion towards that fclence. In imitation of the Royal Academy 

 ?t Paris, and fo many othea- places, a fociety for promot- 

 ing the ftudy of Agriculture has been cftablifhed at Li/bon un- 

 der Royal patronage. One volume, in oftavo, of the tranfac- 

 tions of that fociety, has been already publlfiied, entitled 

 Memorias da Agricultural which will probably be followed 

 by others. This contains the papers that gained premiums i:t 

 the years 1 787 and 1 7S8. 



COPENHAGEN SOCIETIT. 



A SOCIETY has alfo been inftituted in Den marie, whofe 

 object is to fpread ufeful knowledge among the peafantry, and 

 the lower claffes of the people, by collecting proper books and 

 diftributing them gratis. Such attempts, though tliey may 

 indicate good intentions in the promoters of it, difplay, at the 

 fame time, their ignorance of the true principles of political 

 oeconomy. The people are ilaves, and can be little benefited 

 by any improvement that can be made : Vain therefore muft 

 be the efforts to induce them to be active by any modes of in- 

 flruftion. Let the people once feel that every exertion they can 

 make will redound to their own profit, and their induftry will 

 be inftantly augmented. — Tell me that a people are indolent, 

 ignorant, and flow to adopt improvements, and 1 require no 

 other proof for affuring me, that there are many and great 

 radical def-fls in the fyilem of government that there prevails, 

 thougli 1 may know notliing about the nature of thefe defcfts. 

 Long has a great part of our own country groaned under an op- 

 prcflive fyftem of civil polity ; — the people have been funk 

 thereby into mifery ; — they have been accufed of indolence; — 

 they are forced to leave their country. Thus do thofe whofe 

 bufinefs it is to give them relief, inllead of fearching for the 



