354 



INDIA. 



since 1790 is of foreign extraction. This esti- 

 mate is based upon the calculation that the 

 average increase of the population of this coun- 

 try, by the excess of births over deaths, is at 

 the rate of 1.38 per cent. Applying this rule 

 to the increase of the population of this coun- 

 try since 1790, in which year it was, exclusive 

 of slaves, 3,231,930, the results show the mag- 

 nitude of the foreign element. 



The following figures represent what the 

 population, exclusive of slaves, would have been 

 at intervals of ten years, if increased only by 

 the excess of births over deaths, and what it 

 actually was under the influence of constant 

 immigration : 



By natural increase. Actual population. 



In 1800 3,706,674 4,412,896 



1810 4,251,143 6,048,450 



1820 4,875,600 8,100,056 



1830 5,591,775 10,796,077 



1840 6,413,161 14,582,008 



1850 7,355,423 19,987,563 



1860 8,435,882 27,489,662 



1865 . 9,034,245 about 30,000,000 



From this, it will be seen that, of the total 

 population in 1865, 20,965,755 were of foreign 

 extraction. 



In 1856, the Commissioners of Emigration 

 in New York prepared statistics for that year, 

 showing the average amount of money brought 

 into the country by immigrants, and this was 

 found to be $68.08 for each person. The com- 

 missioners subsequently discontinued this ex- 

 amination, because they were not able to ob- 

 tain correct information, the immigrants being 

 suspicious of their motives. It has since been 

 estimated that the average amount of personal 

 property brought by each immigrant to this 

 country is $150. 



The subject of immigration has recently 

 received a new interest and an increased im- 

 portance, on account of the needs of the South- 

 ern and Southwestern States, and the efforts 

 made by them to increase the flow of immigra- 

 tion into their section of the country. In all 

 of the commercial conventions held during the 

 year, this was one of the leading topics of dis- 

 cussion, and there was a marked unanimity of 

 opinion as to the necessity of encouraging im- 

 migration as the best means of developing the 

 material and industrial resources of the South. 

 A plan was recommended by the Commercial 

 Convention assembled at Louisville in October, 

 for the establishment of a General Agency, or 

 Bureau of Immigration, for the purpose of pre- 

 paring reports showing the physical geography 

 of these States, their industrial resources, and 

 tbe advantages and inducements offered to im- 

 migrants; such reports to be translated and 

 published in the various languages, and gra- 

 tuitously distributed among the nations of Eu- 

 rope. The active efforts made by the South to 

 induce immigrants to settle there will undoubt- 

 edly have an important influence upon the fu- 

 ture history of emigration to the United States. 



INDIA, BRITISH, a dependency of Great 

 Britain, in Asia. According to the " Statistical 



Abstract for the Colonial and other Posses- 

 sions," etc., 1852-1866 (London, 1868), British 

 India had, in 1866, an area of 988,091 square 

 miles, and 150,767,851 inhabitants. The reve- 

 nue was 48,935,000 ; the expenditures, 47,- 

 332,000 ; the debt, 98,384. The imports were 

 valued at 56,160,000; the exports, at 67,- 

 660,000. 



Out of 150,000,000 of people under British 

 dominion, it is estimated that there are 110,- 

 000,000 Hindoos, 25,000,000 Mohammedans, 

 12,000,000 of the aboriginal tribes, and 3,- 

 000,000 or 4,000,000 Buddhists, Jews, and Par- 

 sees. 



In no part of India is the progress so re- 

 markable as in the Punjab. Of its area, 96,000 

 square miles are under the direct government 

 of Great Britain, while no less than 197,000 

 square miles are owned and administered by 

 native chiefs. Of these 96,000 square miles, 

 33,000 are cultivated. The crops are raised 

 from 9,752,165 acres in spring, and 9,250,245 

 acres in autumn, judging from the approximate 

 returns of last year. Upward of 50 per cent, 

 of the spring crops was wheat, and 30 per cent, 

 other food grains ; 4 per cent, consisted of oil 

 seeds, and 2 per cent, of vegetables ; tobacco 

 covered 76,866 acres; the poppy for opium 

 16,872; and tea 5,187. About 8 per cent, of 

 the autumn crops was rice, and 7 per cent, 

 other food grains ; 4 per cent, was sugar-cane, 

 and between 8 and 9 per cent, cotton ; 188,671 

 acres were under oil-seeds, and 67,546 acres 

 were covered with indigo. The wages of a 

 common laborer varied from 3d. to 7^d. a day, 

 and of skilled labor from 6d. to Is. 6d., the 

 last being the rate given to masons and car- 

 penters. Wherever the railway and public 

 works are found, prices rise in even a higher 

 ratio than wages; but the only class which 

 suffers is the unskilled laborer, who is always 

 the victim of famine. Every war, whether in 

 Hindostan, China, or Abyssinia, benefits the 

 Punjabee above all classes, and soon leads him 

 to turn his sword into a ploughshare, so that 

 it is now impossible to get good Sikh and even 

 Punjabee Mussulman recruits for the army. 

 Of the whole population of about 17,500,000, 

 9,403,819 are agriculturists, and 8,190,127 non- 

 agriculturists. 



The revenue in 1867-'68 was 3,283,107 from 

 all non-military sources, and the civil disburse- 

 ments 1,230,655, leaving a surplus, for the 

 army, public works, and other imperial de- 

 mands, of 2,052,452. Of these 3,250,000, 

 exclusive of all local funds, 2,170,636 is de- 

 rived from the state assessment on the land, 

 which falls so lightly as at the rate of 2s. Id. 

 on each acre of cultivated area, or Is. 3Jd. on 

 each acre of cultivated land, or 8-J-d. on each 

 acre of the total area assessed, which is up- 

 ward of 61,000,000 acres. As a rule, the na- 

 tives of India are very lightly taxed. They 

 pay per head of population from 9s. a year, as 

 in British Burmah, where alone there is a capi- 

 tation tax, to 5s. in other provinces. 



