CCXXXV. REFLECTIONS ON THE POPULATION OF CHINA AND ITS CAUSES.* AN ORIGINAL PAPER. China, properly so called, contains 333 millions of souls: and extends over twenty degrees of latitude, and twenty of longitude; or four hundred square: the proportion is that of 700,000 men to one square degree or seventy square miles, or 10,000 men to one square mile. This number is not incredible: similar historical facts occur. The provinces of Holland, on a space of two degrees by three, supply a population of two, or at the highest computation, of three millions; or a number half of the Chinese. The tribes under David, eight millions of people, were fed on a surface of three degrees long and three broad. The modern inhabitants of England give more than half the ratio of Chinese popularity; give nine millions of men on sixteen square degrees.-The histories of China prove that in the remotest ages it was populous, and that in each successive age it had increased in numbers. Herodotus, five centuries before Christ, asserts the Hindoos to be the most numerous of nations: The Hindoo writers describe the Chineas as leaving Hindostan and overspreading all the East. The Roman merchants, at the age of our Saviour, had visited the "land of silk," and recount their population with astonishment. The Persian Kings were assisted wih their innumerable forces. Two Mahomedan voyagers (see Harris's collection) in the ninth, and M. Polo in the eleventh, centuries, visited Canton, and talk frequently of their cities containing one million of souls, and of their eleven or twelve thousand walled villages and towns. The Jesuits, during two entire centuries, give an annual census * Barrow, in his Remarks on China, asserts that it exactly equals the dense population of Holland, and consequently exceeds that of England by one half, or perhaps, more nearly one third. and the Imperial enumeration of the Chinese world, and demonstrate its annual increase of citizens to be two millions : and consequently in less than fifty years the increase will ascend to one hundred millions! When will the prejudices of Europe confess that a season of peace and an undivided empire are more favorable to popularity than bloody wars ? and that the human kind, like the herring or the rabbit, if permitted to increase without the interruption of wars and famines, and plagues, soon doubles its numbers ? Having thus cleared the Chinese census (recorded in the Annual Register) of fraud or error, let us propose two calculations.-1st. On the greatest possible population of the whole earth.-2d. On its possible perfect cultivation. With the Chinese ratio of people, the world would contain ten thousand millions of sons and daughters. This circumstance may be easily calculated. China includes twenty degrees of either kind, or a square of four hundred the globe three hundred and sixty in circumference, and one hundred and eighty in latitude; of which space seas occupy two thirds, and leave the rest habitable for man: the arctic circle excluded. Europe claims thirty by sixty, or 1800 square degrees with a population equal to China, it would support 1,498,000,000 of souls, or above ten times its present numbers. Asia, exclusive of China, of North Siberia, of New Holland, of its seas and its lakes; boasts at least of forty degrees in length and ninety in breatdh. It is infinitely more fertile than Europe. With the Chinese population it might nourish 2,664,000,000 of inhabitants. America, exclusive of its Northern districts, its lakes and seas, includes in the Northern hemisphere 2000 square degrees, in the Southern 1800; in the two 3800. With a Chinese population it would comprehend 3,330,000,000 of natives, or ten times the population of China. Africa, no uninhabitable continent as the antients creamed, but fertile and productive, embraces 2800 square degrees; with the China population it would be crowded with 2,331,000,000 of inhabitants.....New Holland, so dimly conjectured in former ages to be a "Southern Continent," and so modestly concealed in the bosom of the Southern ocean, appears to the wondering eye of modern Europe an island or rather a continent exceeding the magnitude of China, and comprizing 600 square degrees. With the Chinese population this "unknown land" would supply food to 499,000,000 of men. From the addition of the above numbers results the sum of 10,665,000,000.-China owes its population, not to the native fertility of its lands, but to its own agricultural industry and owes the numbers of its subjects, not to foreign conquests, but to its peaceable temper and the peaceable increase of its native sons.-The same circumstances alone are wanting to render the whole earth a continued town and a continued garden, resembling China or Holland, Judea or England, in popularity and in cultivation : viz. national and universal peace; national industry. : Were nations individually industrious and universally pacific, all the usual evils of nature would be softened or removed; all the parts of the globe would wave with harvests and buzz with crowds, similar to those of China: every river would be thronged with vessels, every sea groan under a weight of navies: the winds would labour chearfully to waft over the ocean the innumerable fleets, and mother earth would rejoice to expose to her smiling family her hidden treasures of grain and her sources of fertility. In reflecting upon the greatest possible cultivation of the earth, however, take into your consideration local circumstances. 1. Mountains: some are incurably barren, most may be useful. They are tilled in China, Japan, and Great-Britain. They were tilled from the summit to the valley in Canaan, in Moorish Spain, in Carthaginian Africa. 2. Observe the morasses of a country. They have, indeed, been drained in Old England, in Ireland: in a greater degree in Belgium, in modern China, in antient Babylonia. After drainage, their bed is incredibly rich. 3. Attend to sandy regions, thirsty desarts, and moving wastes. In Arabia, Africa, and Southern Tartary, they are by their extent, invincible obstacles to tillage. In antient Egypt, in modern China, in North Holland and South Britain, smaller districts of sand have yielded crops. In Numidia or Tunis, in Morocco and in Spain, in Europe, in Africa, and in Russ or Chinese Tartary, large sandy plains have been subdued, and are immensely fertile. Thus every soil, though unpromising and discouraging, submits in some degree to human industry and skill, to the increase of population and the increased demand of food. Thus every climate contains in its soil the requisites of sustenance, the valuable grains and roots: and thus with the industry of the Chinese nation, and the peaceable character of that wonderful empire, the whole human race, like the laborious ant, may build cells in any place, may collect grain into treasure houses, may obtain all the necessaries of life. CCXXXVI. THE SUN. An Irishman denied that the earth performed its daily motion on its own axis. Some one then asked him how it was that the Sun, which was in the west over-night, was seen the next morning in the East. "Oh" said the Irishman "he goes back again every night, and you do not see him because it is dark!" CCXXXVII. CURRAN. Curran, who was very small, was going to fight a duel with a very fat man. His antagonist seemed disposed to decline on the plea of his chance being very unequal. "That's true," replied Curran," and to remedy the inequality, I'll chalk out my own size on your coat and all hits beyond shall go for nothing." CCXXXVIII. Cloth-machinery. THE FLEET, Sep. 12, 1837. MR SMITH of the BEULAH SPA, who is a prisoner here, says that he was examining the machinery used for making cloth in the woods at Utica, about 300 miles from New York; he observed a machine used in finishing off cloth, which he considered to be both new and valuable, and likely to be universally adopted. He got a model of it, brought it over to England, but could not persuade his partner Mr Pawson to view its utility and profitableness for a patent in the same light. The next year a patent was taken out by Mr Lewis, and the machine is now known as Lewis's patent, and is universally used the patentee has made £60 or £70,000 by it. The patent was infringed; various law-proceedings took place of which the result was favorable to the infringers. At length MR SMITH'S model was produced in Court, and he was fetched up as a witness; the model attracted great attention on the part of Brougham and Scarlett. SIR F. POLLOCK, who was employed in the case, said that MR SMITH had the best right, among Englishmen, to be considered the inventor or discoverer. But he has the best right to be considered in that light, who practically applies an invention or discovery to public utility. CCXXXIX. Mrs Clark. Oct. 13, 1837. Mr Chambers received 3000 guineas to be paid in case Sir John Harrington's son got a Writership in India; Mrs Mary Ann Clarke introduced herself, hoped Mr C. would be secret his gallantry, he said, would induce him to keep all secrets. The money was not paid, because the appointment was not obtained; £10,000 was paid into his hands in the name of an Attorney. : |