Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/82

60 at the beginning of the present dynasty, and then the increase since that time. The first, says Dr. Morrison, was probably about A.D. 1644, and the last about 1790. In a note at the bottom of the page, Dr. Morrison observes, "that the work itself does not state what the time of the original census was; that it was at the beginning of the present dynasty rests on the verbal authority of the natives." Neither does it appear that the work states the precise time when the second census was made; we only know that it was taken prior to the publication of the book in 1790, but how long previous to that date we are not aware. The dates, therefore, of 1644, for the first, and 1790 for the second, are merely hypothetical; and, as much depends on the period when a given census was taken, we cannot, in estimating a population which is constantly and rapidly increasing, take a census without date, and oppose it to the authority of those the dates of which are clearly ascertained. The first census quoted by Dr. Morrison is 27,241,129; while the second amounts to 143,125,225. Now if we refer to the official returns, the dates of which are determined in a foregoing page, we shall find that about the year 1711, the population amounted to 28,605,716, which is not far from the first statement furnished by Dr. Morrison; neither does it differ very materially from the number of jin-ting, or men, quoted by Amiot, and which he has mistaken for families, and multiplied to 157,301,755. The probability therefore is, that as both Amiot and Morrison consulted the Yïh-tung-che, only in two separate editions, the number quoted by the French missionary, and the first estimate produced by Dr. Morrison, refer to one and the same period; and that that period,