TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 153 



loped. A censiia was taken, and we find a population of 22 millions (21,893,171)* 

 in this constitutional State. Ovei'I Rome, Venice, Lombardy, Mantua, Trieste, the 

 Tyrol, Ticino, Savoy, Corsica, Malta, and the Kingdom of Italy, a population of 

 27 millions speaking Italian is difhised. The births, deaths, and marriages are regis- 

 tered, and the piincipal statistical elements are imder observation and inquiry in 

 the Kingdom of Italy, which wiU henceforward have a voice of weight in the 

 aft'airs of Eiu-ope, and in science. The statistics of Itaty are ably displayed in the 

 Statistical Annuary, for 1864, of Correnti and Maestri, who have had a large share 

 in the organization of the statistics of the new kingdom. 



Russia, until lately, did little for statistical science ; and the Emperor Nicholas 

 refused to send a Russian to the first Congi-ess in Brussels, on the alleged ground 

 that his empire had nothing to learn from the science of Europe. Things have 

 since greatly changed, and the Russian Government now fuUy recognizes the 

 claims not only of her own people, but of science and of Europe, to a faithful 

 account of the population and resources of that empire. M. von Buschen and 

 Mr. Wilson were sent over by the Imperial CTOvernmeut to observe our proceedings 

 in the last census ; and M. Troinski, who was here recently, informed me that 

 measures were under consideration for taking as accurate a census of Russia as 

 circumstances will allow. The births, deaths, and marriages will also be registered 

 more .accurately. We may thus expect a gi'eat accession of information from 

 Russian statists, respecting an empire emancipating millions of serfs, and passing 

 through changes which the older States of Europe traveised in what maybe called 

 pre-statistic times. Popular books contain many statements of numbers which 

 are put forth as statistics, but are purely conjectural, or are based upon loose esti- 

 mates. Among the latter numbers is the alleged population of Russia, which i. s 

 set down in the Gotha Almanack at 74,139,-394 souls, neither more nor less — 

 exclusive of the population of Russian America, which belonged to a company 

 whose privileges expu'ed at tlie end of 1863. How far this is wi'ong it is difficult 

 to say; there have been partial censuses, but the population of the empire has 

 never been enumerated. 



So it is in our Indian Empire, the population of which is cited as 135,571,351, 

 The populations of the North-West Provinces, and of the Madras Presidency, have 

 been counted, but the other numbers are " guesses," for we have not everywhere 

 adopted the " practice of counting." The population is as likely to be several 

 millions more in India as to be millions less, for the maxim of Dr. Johnson is not 

 invariably true, that " when numbers are guessed they are always magnified." It 

 is said that the population of Rome was once estimated by the weight of cobwebs 

 ■nathin its precincts; and that Xerxes ascertained the numbers of his host by 

 measuring the ground upon which they stood. How the guesses are made in India 

 we do not precisely know, but it is probable that the population of many of the 

 provinces has been estimated from their area. The enlightened and really benefi- 

 cent Government of India, which collects £43,000,000 of revenue from the popu- 

 lation annually, will no doubt ere long contrive to perfoi-m the really arduous task, 

 at least once for that part of Southern Asia, which Russia is about to perfomi in 

 the North for the barbarous tribes of Siberia, and thus extend the boundaries of 

 official knowledge, enumerate Her Majesty's subjects, and make India by its census 

 an integral part of the empire. 



The British Colonies deserve great praise for their statistics. The last census of 

 Canada is elaborate ; and Mr. Archer, Mr. Rolleston, and their colleagues in 

 Australia, have placed the statistics of those colonies upon such a footing that we 

 shall be able to trace with exti-aordinary minuteness the development of the empire 

 in the southern hemisphere. 



Of China several State censuses are cited, but I confess that I have less faith in 

 the official returns of 367,632,907 " mouths "t (the Chinese for sotds) in China 

 proper, than I have in those of India ; in fact, we should be glad to hand the num- 



* Estimated for 1st January 1863 ; by the census of 1st January 1862, the population 

 was 21,776,953 ; increase 116J218. 



t See paper by R. M. Martin, in " Addenda to Report on Sanitary State of the Army 

 in India," 8vo edit., p. 559. A recent return makes the population of the whole empire 

 415,000,000 (Gotha Almanack, 1864). 



