194 



power, is gained at a higher proportional increase 

 of labour and outlay, the tendency of population 

 is to increase beyond the power of the soil to 

 support it, or in other words, the ratio of the 

 increase is always in favour of consumption and 

 against production. The maximum attained, should 

 population still increase, in a self-supporting- Coun- 

 try, one of two courses only remains population 

 must be checked, or emigration must carry off the 

 surplus. It is impossible to compare a country 

 of such vast extent as India, as a whole, with 

 any Country of Europe, except perhaps Russia. 

 What, then, the comparative capabilities of the soil 

 of India for supporting population may be I cannot 

 say. But taking into consideration that in almost 

 all parts of the Country, two, and in several as many 

 as three or four crops are obtained in a year, its 

 power if not greater, ought not to be less than the 

 European average. And if these data be approxi- 

 mately correct and the figures here given certainly 

 leave a very large margin for error it will appear 

 that, taking the whole superficial area, India is very 

 much under-populated.* 



* The area of British India, as computed up to date by the 

 Surveyor General, is 856,746 square miles, which would give a 

 population of 156 souls per square mile ; but even this number, 

 though less than that of the most populous European coun- 

 tries, is, I think, an over-estimate. The returns of population 

 based on the censuses taken in the N.W. Provinces in 1826 

 and 1848, are manifestly fallacious. The first gave an average 

 in six or seven districts, of 484 souls per square mile, the second 

 an average of 322. But all censuses in India have been little 

 better than guess work. The truest test, for general purposes, 

 is the price of grain, and in most parts of India, making all 



