14 Mr. Davids Memoir concerning the Chinese. 



hoods through which they passed ; and the officers of government observed 

 frequently to us, during the progress of Lord Amherst's embassy, that the 

 "je-naoii," " the crowd and bustle," exceeded any thing they had before 

 witnessed. What sound inferences then can be drawn from the observations 

 of either mission, respecting the real population of China? A statistical 

 work like the Ye-tung-chy, whose professed object was to treat of the 

 resources of the Empire, was very unlikely (however incorrect it might be), 

 to underrate the amount of population. We may, therefore, assume with 

 tolerable certainty, that about 150 millions is the fuU extent of the Chinese 

 population ; that is, less than one half of the 333 millions stated to Lord 

 Macartney. 



Whatever the actual population of the Empire may be, it probably is as 

 thickly peopled in some of its provinces, as any of the richest countries of 

 Europe : but there is every reason to believe that this is not uniform, and that, 

 by the application of additional stimuli to its resources, the whole country 

 might be rendered vastly more wealthy and populous than at present. These 

 stimuli have been stated generally, by political economists, to consist in the 

 distribution and demand arising iirst, from the division of the lands of a 

 country ; secondly, from foreign and internal commerce ; thirdly, from the 

 maintenance of unproductive consumers.* With respect to the first of these, 

 it may safely be affirmed that the subdivision of land in China could not be 

 carried much further with advantage A great landed proprietor is a cha- 

 racter unknown in the country, and all the institutions of the Empire, as well 

 as the habits of the people, are generally inimical to a great accumulation of 

 any kind of property by an individual.t As to its commerce, although the 

 internal trade of China has long since arrived at a very high pitch, and may 

 from the beginning be regarded as the chief cause of the wealth and popu- 

 lousness of the Empire, lis foreign commerce must be considered as very 

 trifling indeed, in comparison with the productive powers of the whole 

 country. If the habits of the people, and the policy of the government. 



* Malthus. Political Economy, ch. 7, sect. 7, page 427. 



•j- Extraordinary wealth never fails, in a country where justice is administered as it is in China, 

 to attract the grasp of rapacity; " feriuntque summos Jiilmina monies." A certain affectation of 

 patriarchal simplicity smA purity, on the part of the Mandarins, operates as a sumptuarj' law, and 

 gives a corresponding tone to the habits of the people, as far as relates to external equipage and 

 show. Superfluous wealth finds itself a vent in the shades of domestic privacy, in contributing to 

 the gratification of every species of sensuality. 



