1319.] the Population of Bombay. 433 



or English labourer, would be the height of extravagance. 

 Polygamy must in the nature ci' things be confined to the rich ; 

 and must, therefore, depend not on physical causes, but on those 

 tyrannical systems of government which, sanctioned by base 

 superstitions, have doomed one half of the human race to impri- 

 sonment and slavery. But facts are more important than any 

 reasonings, however conclusive. By the report of Mr. Raven- 

 shaw, contained in the very instructive Travels of Dr. Francis 

 Buchanan,* we learn, that in the southern part of the province 

 of Canara the whole number of inhabitants was 396,672, of 

 whom the males were 206,633, the females 190,039. The same 

 excess of males above females is, he tells us, to be found in the 

 Barra Mahl and other parts of the peninsula where accurate 

 enumerations have been made. The return of deaths in the 

 island of Bombay for nearly eight years establishes the same 

 fact with respect to the whole population, and to each of the 

 classes which compose it. 



It is well known that the Mahometans are the only class of men 

 in India who practise polygamy to any considerable extent. Out 

 of 20,000 Mahometans in the island of Bombay, only about 100 

 have two wives, and only five have three ; so inconsiderable is 

 the immediate practical result of a system which, in its princi- 

 ples and indirect consequences, produces more evil than perhaps 

 any other human institution, so insignificant is the number of 

 those for whose imagined gratification so immense a body of 

 reasonable beings are degraded and enslaved. 



T 1 



It is remarkable that the only apparent superiority of the 

 number of females is in some of the returns of the Christian 

 congregations, where polygamy is of course unknown. It is 

 reasonable to refer this small exception to accidental causes, 

 which further inquiry will probably discover. 



In all the Other castes the equality of the sexes apparent in 

 the list of burials is a sufficient proof against the prevalence of 

 polygamy ; since it is well known how few natives of India are 

 unmarried. 



Polygamy arises from tyranny, not from climate ; it degrades 

 all women for the sake of a very few men. And the frame of 

 society has confined its practice within such narrow limits that 

 it never can oppose any serious obstacle to beneficial changes 

 in the moral habits, domestic relations, and religious opinions of 

 the natives of India. 



No. I. 



Register of Dead Bodies burned and buried in the Island of 

 Bombay, from the Year 1800 to the Year 1808 inclusive. 



Abstract.— In the year 1801,4,835; 1802, 5,297; 1803, 

 8,320; 1804, 25,834; '1805, 10,347; 1806,6,440; 1807.5,834; 

 1808,7,517. 



• Iran. Buch. Mysore, iii.8. 



Vol. XIV. N° VI. 2K 



