( 206 ) Bk. i. 



CHAP. XII. 



Of the Checks to Population in China and Japan. 



The account, which has lately been given of the 

 population of China, is so extraordinary as to 

 startle the faith of many readers, and tempt them 

 to suppose, either that some accidental error must 

 have crept into the calculations from an ignorance 

 of the language ; or that the mandarin, who gave 

 Sir George Staunton the information, must have 

 been prompted by a national pride, (which is 

 common every where, but particularly remark- 

 able in China,) to exaggerate the power and 

 resources of his country. It must be allowed that 

 neither of these circumstances is very improbable ; 

 at the same time it will be found that the state- 

 ment of Sir George Staunton does not very essen- 

 tially differ from other accounts of good authority : 

 and, so far from involving any contradiction, is 

 rendered probable by a reference to those descrip- 

 tions of the fertility of China, in which all the 

 writers who have visited the country agree. 



According to Duhalde, in the poll made at the 

 beginning of the reign of Kang-hi, there were 

 found 11,052,872 families, and 59,788,364 men 

 able to bear arms ; and yet neither the princes, 

 nor the officers of the court, nor the mandarins, 

 nor the soldiers who had served and been dis- 



