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down the population of British India at 130,000,000. 

 I have been extremely amused in observing- how 

 this number has gradually been swelled up, first to 

 150,000,000, then to 180,000,000, and lastly to 

 200,000,000, at which, for the present I believe, it 

 stands. True, Her Majesty's possessions in India 

 have increased considerably within the last eigh- 

 teen years. But in what ratio? The Punjab 

 added, say 10,000,000; Nag-poor 5,000,000; Oude 

 5,000,000,; Pegu 1,000,000 to the population of 

 British India, making a total of 21,000,000 souls : 

 or, allowing for the lapse of minor States and 

 Principalities, say in round numbers 25,000,000. 

 The latest returns to Parliament give the population 

 of British India as 135,369,598. Yet in every 

 speech in the House of Commons, in every news- 

 paper article, in every review on the subject, Her 

 Majesty's 200,000,000 of Indian subjects are regu- 

 larly paraded before the public, with the same con- 

 fidence as if they had been actually registered, mus- 

 tered, and returned. Were the public, at the same 

 time, favoured with even an approximate estimate 

 of the area of this great peninsula were it always 

 added, for instance, that, Russia excluded, India is 

 larger than half Europe, there would not be so much 

 harm in the multiplication of these hundreds of 

 millions of people. But, generally, no allusion 

 whatever is made to this simple fact. The public, 

 consequently, never very discriminating in statistical 

 matters, and having no standard of comparison pre- 



