Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/131

Rh by extraordinary encouragements. I mean not that theſe doubts ſhould be extended to the importation of uſeful artificers. The policy of that meaſure depends on very different conſiderations. Spare no expence in obtaining them. They will after a while go to the plough and the hoe; but, in the mean time, they will teach us ſomething we do not know. It is not ſo in agriculture. The indifferent ſtate of that among us does not proceed from a want of knowledge merely; it is from our having ſuch quantities of land to waſte as we pleaſe. In Europe the object is to make the moſt of their land, labor being abundant: here it is to make the moſt of our labor, land being abundant.

It will be proper to explain how the numbers for the year 1782 have been obtained; as it was not from a perfect cenſus of the inhabitants. It will at the ſame time develope the proportion between the free inhabitants and ſlaves. The following return of taxable articles for that year was given in.

There were no returns from the 8 counties of Lincoln, Jefferſon, Fayette, Monongahela, Yohogania, Ohio, Northampton, and York. To find the number of ſlaves which ſhould have been returned inſtead of the 23,766 tytheables, we muſt