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average, for the maintenance of - one perfon, Ireland, 
if duly cultivated, could maintain two millions more 
people than it has now, or three times its prefent 
number of inhabitants. 
And in Scotland, if there be, as is faid, but a mil- 
lion and an half of people, for at prefent I know no 
way to compute them, and 27700 fquare miles, or 
17.728.000 acres, and one- third be fuppofed wafte, 
which is not too much in that Country, then there 
will be 1 1,000,000 good acres j of which, if we fup- 
pofe that five acres of that foil is not more than fuf- 
ficient for each perfon, then there may be provifion for 
2.200.000 people, or more, -with the advantages of 
filhing, that is 700000 more than there are at prefent. 
From all which it is plain, that if the land in both the 
Britifh ifles was duly cultivated, they might fuftain 
about fix millions more people than they do nowj that 
is as many more people as England now contains. And 
this proportion of the number of people, to the 
quantity of provifions that may be raifed for them, 
from the natural produce of the country, I think is 
of great importance to confider, as it has many ufe- 
ful confeqnences, fome of which might be men- 
tioned, if this was a proper place for political re- 
fied:ions. 
And here, by the way, it may be obferved, if we 
extend our thoughts to the whole Globe of the Earth, 
and compare the quantity of land with the number of 
people, we diall find, that it will maintain above 
twenty-fix times the prefent number of mankind. As 
this has hitherto not been taken notice of, I fliall 
briefly fhew it. The circumference of the Earth, fup- 
pofing it to be a fphere, is, according to the mea- 
fures 
