CHINA, 89 



With respect to this statement, sir George Staunton, who compiled 

 the judicious and authentic account of the late English embassy to 

 China observes, that " the extent of the provinces is ascertained by- 

 astronomical observations, as well as by admeasurement. The num- 

 ber of individuals is regularly taken in each division of a district by a 

 tything-man, or every tenth master of a family. Those returns are 

 collected by officers resident so near as to be capable of correcting 

 any gross mistake ; and all the returns are lodged in the great regis- 

 try at Pekin. Though the general statement is strictly the result of 

 those returns added to each other, which seem little liable to error, 

 or taken separately, to doubt, yet the amount of the whole is so pro- 

 digious as to stagger belief. It must, however, be recollected, that 

 population in China is not subject to be materially diminished by war. 

 No private soldiers, and a few officers only, natives of the ancient 

 provinces of China, were engaged in the conquest of Western Tar- 

 tary, or in the Tibet war. Celibacy is rare, even in the military pro- 

 fessions, among the Chinese. The number of manufacturers, whose 

 occupations are not always favourable to health, whose constant con- 

 finement to particular spots, and sometimes in a close or tainted at- 

 mosphere, must be injurious, and whose residence in towns exposes 

 them to irregularities, bears but a very small proportion to that of 

 husbandmen in China. In general there seem to be no other bounds 

 to Chinese populousness than those which the necessity of subsistence 

 may put to it. These boundaries are certainly more enlarged than 

 in other countries. The whole surface of the empire is, with trifling 

 exceptions, dedicated to the production of food for man alone. There 

 is no meadow, and very little pasture, nor are fields cultivated in 

 oats, beans, or turnips, for the support of cattle of any kind. Few 

 parks or pleasure-grounds are seen, excepting those belonging to 

 the emperor. Little land is taken up for roads, the chief commu- 

 nication being by water. There are no commons or lands suffered 

 to lie waste by the neglect, or the caprice, or for the sport, of great 

 proprietors. No arable land lies fallow. The soil, under a hot and 

 fertilizing sun, yields double crops, in consequence of adapting the 

 culture to the soil, and supplying its defects by mixture with other 

 earths, by manure, watering, and careful and useful industry of every 

 kind. The labour of man is little diverted from that industry to mi- 

 nister to the luxuries of the opulent and powerful, or in employments 

 of no real use. Even the soldiers of the Chinese army, except dur- 

 ing the short intervals of the guards which they are called to mount, 

 or the exercises or other occasional services which they perform, 

 are mostly employed in agriculture. The quantity of subsistence is 

 increased also by converting more species of animals and vegetables 

 to that purpose than is usual in other countries. From a consider- 

 ation of the influence of all these causes, the great population of 

 China, asserted in this statement, will not, perhaps, appear surpris- 

 ing, though it appears from it that every square mile in that vast 

 empire contains upon an average, about one-third more inhabitants, 

 being upwards of three hundred, than are found upon an equal 

 quantity of land, also upon an average, in the most populous coun- 

 try in Europe." 



Face of the (Jountry, mountains The appearance of the 



country in China, is very diversified, though in general it is level and 

 most assiduously cultivated, yet according to Du Halde, the pro* 



Vol. II. N 



