CHINA 



293 



Population, riod in the country, decidedly controverts the fact of an 

 * "V""' immense population in the Chinese empire ; and main- 

 tains, upon very positive grounds, that it does not much 

 exceed that of other countries, in proportion to the ex- 

 tent of territory. 



In this view, he considers, first of all, the presumptive 

 arguments against so immense a population, from the 

 present state of China in respect of cultivation ; from the 

 fact of one-third ( Mr Barrow himself admits one-fourth) 

 of the soil being altogether unproductive, a point which 

 he fully established from the accounts of those mission- 

 aries who had traversed the different provinces ; from 

 the peculiarity of its situation with regard to the adjoin- 

 ing countries, which are utterly unable to afford any 

 supplies of provisions ; and from the frequent failures in 

 its actual produce, and the famines consequent upon 

 such calamities, which have been uniformly presenting 

 the most effectual checks to an increase of population. 

 Thus defective in its own cultivation, and thus unable 

 to procure supplies from other countries, it cannot be 

 presumed to subsist a proportionable number of inhabi- 

 tants with such nations as Great Britain and the United 

 Provinces, which, in addition to their improved agricul- 

 ture, import so abundantly from the most distant parts 

 of the globe. 



He next examines the statements of Chinese popula- 

 tion as actually given, and remarks upon the internal 

 evidence, which they afford, of inaccuracy and uncer- 

 tainty. In the first period of eighteen yean, from 1743 

 to 17G1, according to the preceding table, the province 

 of Pe-tchelee declined in the number of its inhabitants, 

 while, in the next thirty-three years, from 1761 to 179-t, 

 it was more than doubled. In the first period, on the 

 contrary, Kiang-nan nearly doubled its population, while, 

 in the second, it declined more than one-fourth. Hoo- 

 quang, in the first eighteen years, increased almost four- 

 fold ; while Se-tchuen, in the same period, stink from 

 fifteen millions to two, and, in the next thirty-three 

 years, rose from two to twenty-seven millions. Koei- 

 tcheoo again, in eighteen years, increased to thirteen 

 times its number ; and Leao-tong, in thirty-three years, 

 nearly fifteen times. The very assertion of such pro- 

 gress in a country, which is acknowledged to have been 

 stationary, in point of improvement, for many hun- 

 dreds of years, is itself a circumstance sufficiently sus- 

 picious. In the statement given to the British embas- 

 sy, the uniform use of round numbers is considered 

 as a sufficient evidence of its inaccuracy, and of its ha- 

 ving been founded rather upon conjecture than any ac- 

 tual survey ; while it bears other notorious marks of in- 

 correctness and exaggeration. The province of Pe-tche- 

 lee, for instance, is represented as more populous than 

 that of Kiang-nan, though it is one-half less in point of 

 extent, and neither so fertile in its soil, nor so full of 

 manufactures. Kiang-nan again, which contains about 

 10,000 square leagues, is rated at a population nearly 

 one-third, according to die statement of the British em- 

 bassy, and nearly one-half, according to Father Aller- 

 stain's account, greater than that of France before the 

 revolution, a country three times more extensive in point 

 of territory. Such amazing variations cannot be ac- 

 counted for by the supposition of migrations wnong the 

 natives from one province to another ; as it is known, 

 that, from the poverty, superstitions, and agricultural oc- 

 cupations of the Chineic, there is no nation in the world 

 less apt to remove from place to place. The great di- 

 minutions in the population of the different provinces, 

 may easily, indeed, be conceived to have been occasioned 

 by those dreadful famine?, which not un frequently occur 



in this extensive empire, and which often reduce the in- Fopuhtiu*. 

 habitants of a district, to one-half their number ; but > ""T~~"'' 

 nothing, in the condition and customs of the Chinese, 

 can explain those speedy and extraordinary augmenta- 

 tions, which the above statements bear. 



It is admitted on all hands, even by those who are in- 

 clined to credit the highest accounts of the population 

 of China, that no dependence can be placed upon the 

 statements of the Chinese themselves, whose government, 

 say's Mr Barrow, " is much given to exaggeration in all 

 matters relating to the aggrandisement of their country, 

 and to deal liberally in hyperboles when numbers are 

 concerned." " No people in the world," says M. DC 

 Guignes, " are more disposed to exaggerate every cir- 

 cumstance relating to their own country. They make 

 no scruple whatever to deceive a foreigner, as it gratifies 

 their vanity, and increases their own importance, to over- 

 rate the power of their nation." Full credit cannot be 

 given evtn to those statements, which are drawn from 

 the official papers and most authentic documents of the 

 government itself; because it is the interest of the man- 

 darins to represent the population as always increasing, 

 that the provinces may appear to have improved under 

 their administration ; while it would displease the sove- 

 reign, and obstruct their own advancement, were they 

 to announce the smallest diminution. Now, as these 

 viceroys are changed every two or three years, and as 

 every one has an equal interest in making these flattering 

 representations, it may easily be conceived how rapidly 

 the population of the empire increases upon the face of 

 the state papers. 



It is chiefly, then, from the observations of those who 

 have travelled in the country, that any reasonable opinion 

 can be formed respecting, at least, the relative population 

 of China. There, indeed, also, the accounts arc rather 

 discordant ; but the majority of recent testimonies deci- 

 dedly tend to prove, that this boasted empire is not more 

 populous, than other civilized or established countries. 

 Mr Barrow speaks in general, in the most positive terms, 

 of the great population of the different places, through 

 which the British embassy were made to pass ; and he 

 insists, that the immense crowds of people, whom they 

 witnessed, were not confined to the larger towns, and the 

 places at which they halted in their progress ; but that 

 some of those parts, which were at a distance from the 

 common road, were found to be the most populous of 

 any in their route. This assertion seems to be complete- 

 ly neutralized by his own testimony, in another part of 

 his work, where he expressly says, " the proximity of 

 the capital would have led one to expect a corresponding 

 population. Nothing of this kind appeared. The vast 

 numbers we had observed in ascending the river, were 

 drawn from the distance of many miles out of mere curi- 

 osity. The inhabitants only of the vicinity now shewed 

 themselves, and we were rather surprised at the fewness 

 of these, as well as at the very ruinous and miserable con- 

 dition of almost all the cottages." By the journal of a 

 gentleman in the train of the Dutch embassy, which it 

 cited in the travels of Mr Barrow, we learn, that they 

 were surprised to find so few cities, towns, and villages 

 in their route; that sometimes not a single dwelling, or 

 trace of cultivation, was seen iu a space of eight or ten 

 English miles ; that mauy of the habitations, which they 

 did perceive, were in the most ruiaous condition imagi- 

 nable, and that one of the party declared, he did not be- 

 lieve the whole world could furnish such a picture of de- 

 solation and misery, aa they witnessed. 



M. De Guignes enters more fully into the subject, 

 and describes the appearance of the country, in the ex- 



