Burdwan, endeavored with more attention to accuracy than had been in any instance previously given to ascertain the exact number of inhabitants within his jurisdiction, and the amount at which he arrived in like manner exceeded the estimate of 1801. Hamilton remarks that if the population of the other districts was as much underrated in 1801 as that of those estimated by Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Bayley, great as the sum total is, it might be almost doubled. On the other hand, the population of some principal cities has been found by actual census to fall considerably short of what it was before supposed to be. Until, therefore, a complete and accurate census of the population is taken, we can only attempt to judge by approximation of the proportion and fit distribution of the means of instruction, in relation to the real wants of the country.
Section I.
The Twenty-four Pergunnahs, including Calcutta.
Population.—The estimate of 1801 makes the population of the Twenty-four Pergunnahs amount to 1,625,000 persons, which Hamilton in one place (Vol. I. p. 190) represents as including the population of Calcutta, and in another place (Vol. II. p. 691) as exclusive of the inhabitants of the Calcutta jurisdiction. It seems the more probable supposition that the returns for the Twenty-four Pergunnahs in 1801 did not include the population subject to the jurisdiction of the Calcutta Magistrates. No complete census has yet been taken of the population of Calcutta. In 1752 Mr. Holwell estimated the number of houses within the Company's bounds at 51,132, and the permanent inhabitants at 409,056 persons, without reckoning the multitude daily coming and going. In 1802 the Police Magistrates reckoned the population of Calcutta at 600,000, and they were of opinion that the city, with a circuit of twenty miles, comprehended 2,225,000. In 1810 Sir Henry Russell, the Chief Judge, computed the population of the town and its environs at 1,000,000; and General Kyd, the population of the city alone at between 400,000 and 500,000 inhabitants. In 1819 the Calcutta School Society estimated the Native population of Calcutta at 750,000. In June 1822 the Magistrates of Calcutta directed returns of the population to be made from the four divisions, and they showed the following results:— Christians 13,138; Mahomedans 48,162; Hindus 118,203; Chinese 414—total 179,917. The number of persons entering the town daily from the suburbs and across the river has been estimated, by stationary peons and sircars placed to count them, at 100,000. Upon the whole, therefore, it appeared to be the opinion of the Magistrates from the returns that, taking the resident population at about 200,000, and those entering the town daily at 100,000, the sum would give a tolerably accurate approximation to the real number.
