Mi 



CHINA. 



are founded to much upon mere conjectural computations, 

 aad are attended with so many irreconcilable discre- 

 pancies that it is impossible to frame a consistent view 

 of the matter from l'. . . h they severally 



furnish. The inhabitants of China, for instance, have 

 been calcubtfd 



46.734,784 

 58,854,711 

 105.871,434 

 115,052,724 

 117.!Ki7,71.) 

 1 50,265,47 > 

 196,837,977 

 198,214,553 

 SSS.OOO.OOO* 



The following table presents three of these statements 

 in a more detailed form ; and may enable our readers, by 

 a comparative view of their variations, to detect more 

 easily, and to ascertain more clearly, their complete in- 

 consistency. The statement for the year 1743, is found- 

 ed upon the report of the French missionaries ; that for 

 J761, upon the authority chiefly of Father Allerstain ; 

 and that for 110tf t upon the accounts of the British em- 

 batty. 



The last of these statements, which makes the popula- 

 tion of China amount to 333,000,000, omitting Leao-tong, 

 was communicated to the British embassy by the principal 

 Chinese officers of state ; and Mr Barrow, though ready 

 to acknowledge the little dependence which can be placed 

 upon their authority, endeavours, with considerable in- 

 genuity, to prove at least the possibility of its truth. 

 If China contains 1,',"C, !!)') tquare miles, there would 

 thus, upon an average, be 256 souls to every square mile, 

 which is not much more than twice the proportion which 

 i: found to exist in Great Britain. The united provinces 

 . -i 1 iolland have been calculated to contain 270 inhabitants 

 upon every square mile ; and the island of Barbadoes, 

 which is said to have contained, in 1670, a proportion 

 of 500, is ascertained, by a more accurate enumeration 



in 17S6, to support at lean S63 inhabitant! uport each Pop . 

 tquare rrile. Hence it is argui d, that China may be """""i"" 

 conceived, without any great stretch of belief, to main- 

 tain the number assigned above, especially when it is con- 

 sidered, th.it it enjoys advantages favourable to popula- 

 tion beyond most other countries in the world. In sup- Causes of 

 port of this opinion, it is alleged, that, excepting a few i'"nmene 

 bkirmi'hes on the frontiers w ith the Russians and In- P P ulal ' J ' u - 

 dians, it has enjoyed a profound peace since the Tartar 

 conquest ; that, as its soldiers arc parcelled out as guards 

 in the towns, cities, villages, and stations upon the roads 

 and canuU, where they have portions of land allotted for 

 their use, they all enter into the married state ; that, as 

 the nation bas little foreign commerce, there are few sea- 

 men in proportion, and that those who belong to the in- 

 land navigation are generally the fathers of families ; 

 that celibacy it, by public opinion, regarded as discre- 

 ditable, and, after a certainitime of life, is actually mark- 

 ed with infamy ; that every male child may secure a sub- 

 sistence from the moment of its birth, by being enrolled 

 in the military list ; that there are few of those large 

 manufactures and mechanical occupations in crowded 

 cities, which, in other countries, prove so destructive to 

 health and population, by the debaucheries and diseases 

 which they occasion ; that, by the equal division of the 

 soil into small farms, every peasant possesses the means 

 of bringing up his family, while the great body of the 

 people are also, from the same cause, employed in active 

 and wholesome labour i:i the open air; that the lower 

 orders, partly from their poverty, are temperate in their 

 mode of living, and little addicted to the vice of drunk- 

 enness ; that the climate is moderate and uniform, am! 

 that, excepting the small-pox and other contagious di - 

 orders, which occasionally break out in their more con- 

 fined and crowded cities, there are few epidemical dis- 

 tempers in the country ; that no superfluous animals arc 

 k-rpt for pleasure, and even very few for labour, so that 

 the whole cultivated surface is applied almost solely to 

 the production of food for human beings ; that the peo- 

 ple abstain almost entirely from animal food, except 

 those kinds which are most easily reared, such as pigs 

 and poultry, and live almost wholly upon grain, viz. 

 rice, which yields an immense increase, and of which 

 they can often raise two crops in the year ; that the car- 

 riage of goods from place to place is performed, not by 

 unproductive highways, but by canals, rivers, and lakes, 

 abounding in fish, and thus affording subsistence to a 

 considerable portion of the natives. f From all these 

 considerations it is conceived, that the population of 

 China may not only amount to the highest statement 

 which has yet been given, but that it is even scarcely 

 equal to the means of subsistence which the country is 

 capable of yielding ; and that, were a more efficient plan 

 of cultivation introduced, especially if the more sure 

 crops of potatoes in the northern parts, and of Guinea 

 corn in the south, were substituted for the precarious 

 culture of rice, a still greater quantity of nourishment 

 might be produced, and a still greater number of inha- 

 bitants supported. 



On the other hand, M. De Guignes, a more recent 

 traveller in China, and who resided a much longer pc- to hit 



statement. 



On* very obvious remark, ii|x>n llicic account!, Ii this, that \( they are founded in truth, thi-n tin- empire of China, instead of 

 hiving continued nearly In IU proem (late of md prosperity, for the space of 9000 yean, appears rather like n newly 



esUMUwd country. Increasing rapidly hi wrnllh and population. 



t In on* day, i mlxuny puttd. upon the river Pti-lio, more than GOO large vessels having each tt ran^' 1 "f U'n or uvchr 



distinct apartments built u|m their decks, and each apartment cunt. lining a whnlc family ; so that each vessel wan cnlrnl.ii 

 about t fty individuals; and rcclunr, : ::,. .-iln-r kinds of craft passing and rcpawuig, nnluin. .It" iln- l>.mki. :<m! f> 

 nod dftldjen, they calculated, that, la a space of ninety miles, there were floating un this until branch not fewer than 100,000 souls. 



