284 Statistical Notices 



economist has lately given it as his opinion, before the Emi- 

 gration Committee, that the present inhabitants of the British 

 Islands do not amount to less than twenty-two millions and a 

 half. This estimate is perhaps a little exaggerated ; but as 

 it may be assumed sufficiently near the truth for all the objects 

 of general speculation, I shall proceed to point out a few of 

 those leading peculiarities, to which I have just alluded. In 

 the first place we may assert, I apprehend, on sufficient 

 grounds, that Great Britain is the most populous nation which 

 has existed since the Christian era. No other instance has 

 occurred in which an extent of continuous surface of 93,000 

 square miles has sustained a population of twenty-two millions. 

 Italy, which is not of much greater extent, has sometimes 

 been rated at nearly the same amount, but this estimate has 

 been formed in the absence of all actual enumeration, and is 

 now ascertained to be a considerable exaggeration. No other 

 part of the world can enter into the competition, unless it be 

 certain districts of China and Japan, but which, as our know- 

 ledge of them in this respect is quite uncertain, I shall leave 

 wholly out of the question. How far some nations of the 

 ancient world may have approached or gone beyond us in the 

 race of population, is perhaps equally lost in uncertainty. 

 There is reason to believe, as I have endeavoured to demon- 

 strate on another occasion, that some districts of the old world 

 exceeded, in this respect, any country of modern ages. Amongst 

 them, perhaps, may be reckoned Egypt, Mesopotamia, the lesser 

 Asia, and some parts of Persia : but certainly, neither in ancient 

 nor modern times do we find any instance of a single, compact, 

 distinct empire, exactly defined, identically governed, and 

 peopled by twenty-two millions of souls on the same extent of 

 soil ; this is undoubtedly a peculiarity the most striking which 

 can exist among nations. :'4:( tn i«rrn t>«l| oj rr>f]<r/i nH h 



In the second place, we may,- 1 thinks affirm '^ith^fielei-able 

 certainty, that no nation ever contained so many large cities. 

 On this point Great Britain exhibits a splendid superiority. 

 We have two cities of the first class, London and Dubhn ; the 

 one with a population of more than a million, the other with 

 little less than three hundred thousand. Of cities of the second 

 class, or those which reach one hundred thousand inhabitants. 



