220 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



and, during these periods, it is probable that slaves 

 would be sold in great numbers for little more 

 than a bare maintenance. It could very rarely 

 therefore answer to the master of a family, to 

 encourage his slaves to breed ; and we may sup- 

 pose, in consequence, that a great part of the ser- 

 vants in China, as in Europe, remain unmarried. 



The check to population, arising from a vicious 

 intercourse with the sex, does not appear to be 

 very considerable in China. The women are said 

 to be modest and reserved, and adultery is rare. 

 Concubinage is however generally practised, and 

 in the large towns public women are registered ; 

 but their number is not great, being proportioned, 

 according to Sir George Staunton, to the small 

 number of unmarried persons, and of husbands 

 absent from their families.* 



The positive checks to population from disease, 

 though considerable, do not appear to be so great 

 as might be expected. The climate is in general 

 extremely healthy. One of the missionaries goes 

 so far as to say, that plagues or epidemic disor- 

 ders are not seen once in a century ;t but this is 

 undoubtedly an error, as they are mentioned by 

 others as if they were by no means so unfrequent. 

 In some instructions to mandarins, relating to the 

 burying of the poor, who have in general no re- 

 gular places of sepulture, it is observed that when 

 epidemic diseases prevail, the roads are found 



* Embassy to China, vol. ii. p. 157. 

 t Lettres Edit. torn. xxii. p. 187. 



