Ch. xii. China and Japan. 229 



spects that of China, that a particular considera- 

 tion of it would lead into too many repetitions. 

 Montesquieu attributes its populousness to the 

 birth of a greater number of females;* but the 

 principal cause of this populousness is, without 

 doubt, as in China, the persevering industry of 

 the natives, directed, as it has always been, prin- 

 cipally to agriculture. 



In reading the preface to Thunberg's account 

 of Japan, it would seem extremely difficult to 

 trace the checks to the population of a country, 

 the inhabitants of which are said to live in such 

 happiness and plenty; but the continuation of 

 his own work contradicts the impression of his 

 preface ; and in the valuable history of Japan by 

 Ksempfer these checks are sufficiently obvious. 

 In the extracts from two historical chronicles 

 published in Japan, which he produces,! a very 

 curious account is given of the different mortali- 

 ties, plagues, famines, bloody wars and other 

 causes of destruction, which have occurred since 

 the commencement of these records. The Japan- 

 ese are distinguished from the Chinese, in being 

 much more warlike, seditious, dissolute and ambi- 

 tious : and it would appear, from Ksempfer's ac- 

 count, that the check to population from infanti- 

 cide, in China, is balanced by the greater disso- 



* Liv. xxiii. c. xii. It is surprising that Montesquieu, who 

 appears sometimes to understand the subject of population, should 

 at other times make such observations as this. 



f Look ii. 



