154 



tiiou^rh this certainly, 'when it r<*ally does exist, 

 must be acknowledged as a main source of the 

 evil complained of, the dispassionate enquirer will 

 take other causes ioto eansideratiou : he will 

 compare the population with the extent of the 

 country over which it is dii^tiibuted— he will en- 

 quire whether the habits of the people be a^^ri- 

 culturaU or their dispoj^ition industnous — whe- 

 ther their wants be simple, and natural. and» 

 consequently, easily supplied; or whether aa 

 artificial mode of life has begotten additional 

 cravings, and induced greater exertions in order 

 to sati*ify them— and, lastly, he will compare the 

 state of the country, which he is examining, with 

 that of contiguous nations, which sprang into 

 existence at the same period, and have enjoyed 

 equal natural advantages. 



It is a trite, but a true, remark, (the justice of 

 which has been often forcibly presented to me 

 in a life which ha.? been essentially erratic), that 

 the traveller needs uot to be informed of the mo- 

 ment that he passes across th* frontier of the 

 English East India Company*s territory; and 

 this is strikingly verified with respect to Nan- 

 ning. After her villages had been destroyed by 

 war, and her fields laid waste and desolate by the 

 concomitant cessation of harvest for two years, 

 she yet exhibited greater signs of prosperity 

 than her neighbour of Rumbow, who, with a den- 

 ser population, had remained unscathed by the 

 «word — uninterrupted in her harvests- 



It is therefore not unfair to conclude that, as 

 Naimiog has undoubtedly thus progressed du- 

 ring th*^ sfiort prriod tbai -^he ' rtn been under the 



