208 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



individuals of each family, sleeping in different 

 beds, divided only by mats hanging from the ceil- 

 ing. One common room is used for eating.* In 

 China there is besides a prodigious number of 

 slaves.^ who will of course be reckoned as part of 

 the families to which they belong. These two 

 circumstances may perhaps be sufficient to ac- 

 count for what at first appears to be a contradic- 

 tion in the statement. 



To account for this population, it will not be 

 necessary to recur to the supposition of Montes- 

 quieu, that the climate of China is in any peculiar 

 manner favourable to the production of children, 

 and that the women are more prolific than in any 

 other part of the world.^ The causes which have 

 principally contributed to produce this effect ap- 

 pear to be the following: 



First, the excellence of the natural soil, and its 

 advantageous position in the warmest parts of the 

 temperate zone, a situation the most favourable to 

 the productions of the earth. Duhalde has a long 

 chapter on the plenty which reigns in China, in 

 which he observes, that almost all that other 

 kingdoms afford may be found in China; and that 

 China produces an infinite number of things, 

 which are to be found nowhere else. This plenty, 

 he says, may be attributed as well to the depth 

 of the soil, as to the painful industry of its inhabi- 

 tants, and the great number of lakes, rivers, 



* Embassy to China, vol. ii. Appen. p. 155. 4to. 

 f Duhalde's China, vol. i. p. 278. 

 % Esprit des Loix, liv. viii. c. xxi. 



