Our Necessities, and those daily encreasing, first prompted to this Essay. The Authority of Books, I have not relied on, but a Series of Experiments that employed several Years in the Pursuit. If I have pointed out, or cleared from Incumbrances, an advantageous Path that may lessen the Import of Bark, extend our Tannage by our own Produce, and give a Support to any Number of Poor; I regard it in no other Sense, than having done Part of that Duty, I owe to a Country, which in Gratitude, I would call mine. I might justly incur a severe Censure, if I should conclude, without testifying with all due Acknowledgements, a grateful Sense of my Obligations, to the Honourable _House of Commons_, for the Vote they were pleased to pass in my Favour, on the Report of the _Committee_; that I had, after a full Enquiry, answered the Allegations of my Petition; and for the Resolution, they entred into, of giving all proper Encouragement to so useful a Proposal. Far from being insensible, that all new Attempts of this Kind, are apt to subject the Author of them, to the Name of a Projector, and render him the Object of Reproach and Suspicion; when I was fully satisfied in the Facts, on which this Method is grounded; I communicated it to some Persons, who are as little liable to be impos’d on themselves, as they are above all Suspicion of imposing on others; under the Sanction of whole Characters, such an Imputation would at once be removed. By their Directions I preferred my Petition, and notwithstanding the Success was not altogether such as they desired; I hope they will not deny me the indulging a sincere Gratitude, in particulary owning the Obligations to them, who so warmly espoused my Interest, grounded upon that of the Nation. I shall venture to say no more, than as I flatter my self they can clear me from any Imputations of Sinister or Mercenary Views; So I can promise my Endeavours shall always tend to hinder a Blush, for the Kind Representations, they have been pleased to make in my Favour; and that I shall always study to approve my self what is my chiefest Ambition to be, and what only intitles me to their Patronage; a Pretender to no other merit, but Plain dealing. I should have published this sooner, but that I waited the Success of some repeated, as well as new Experiments; all which on the best Examination I am capable of making, have tended to an intire Confirmation; That the _Tormentil_ Roots Tan all Hydes and Skins as effectually, cheaper, and in less Time than Bark, and is easily propagated. _FINIS._ End of Project Gutenberg's A Method of Tanning without Bark, by William Maple