325 







any Country of Europe, except perhaps Russia. 

 What, then, the comparative capabilities of the 

 soil o? 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 approximately correct and the figures 

 here given certainly leave a very large margin for 

 error, it will appear, that taking the whole superfi- 

 cial area, India is very much ww/e/*- populated.* 



It is quite true that population in India is very un- 

 equally distributed ; so much so that while enormous 

 tracts of country are waste and wholly without inhabi- 



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

 Surveyor General, is 853,746 square miles, which would give a 

 population of 156 souls per square rnile ; but even this number though 

 leas than that of the moat populous European countries, is, I think, an 

 over-estimate. The returns of population based on the censuses taken 

 in the N. W. Provinces in 1826 and 1843 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 censusss 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 due allowances for the dearness of money, except 

 in times of dearth it is, comparatively, extremely cheap. Cultivation 

 thoroughout India is low, und large tracts of land are waste. 

 We require no other data to satisfy us that population is not in 

 excess of the productive powers of the soil. In China, where 

 population is really excessive, we find cultivation at the highest 

 point, aud emigration very active. The laws of nature are always 

 a very safe guide. 



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