Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/86

64 With regard to the foregoing lists of the population, published at various periods, and adduced by different writers, we may observe, that the second, third, and seventh columns, being extracted from official documents with the dates annexed, may be considered as most worthy of regard: and, by a comparison of these three, it will be seen that, in almost all the items, as well as in the sums total, they advance in a progressive ratio, from 1711 to 1753, and 1812. It is a matter of regret that we are not able to furnish the particulars of the census taken in 1792, and extracted by Dr. Morrison from the Ta-tsing-hwuy-tëen, but the aggregate 307,467,200 corresponds with that system of progressive increase which has evidently been going on in China, for the last century. It will be seen also that the revenue derived from the various provinces, in the eighth, ninth, and tenth columns, is in such proportions as we might anticipate from the population of the respective regions as exhibited in the second, third, and seventh columns; considering that some of the provinces are more fertile than others, and therefore produce more, both in money and kind. From these considerations, therefore, we may venture to conclude, that the three columns above referred to, exhibit the most authentic and credible account of the population, at the periods specified.

Next to them in importance and credibility is the account given by Grosier, and the rough sketch brought home by Sir G. Staunton, in the fifth and sixth columns. Grosier's account exhibits a progressive increase in the various provinces, such as we might expect to find, and thus greatly corroborates the statements which precede and follow, in the third and seventh