able during the whole time to spare colonists to Siam, to the Straits Settlements and Malaysia, to the United States and Peru, and to Australia, besides those whom the Government poured into Hi. The settlement in Siam took place under the disadvantage that Chinamen forfeited the rights of citizenship in their own country, and were not protected in case of injury; nevertheless, the Chinese element of the population is now 3,000,000, or about one-fourth. If this has taken place during a period of conservatism and decadence, what are we to expect as year by year the population of the Celestial Empire increases, and its rulers adopt the aggressive policy of the West?
It must be borne in mind, too, that a country may often find its numbers too large for it when it is very far from having reached the limits of its productivity. England in 1840 had a population of 16,000,000, and was over - peopled, so that except for America and Australia it is difficult to see how a great part of her people could have supported life. England in 1890 has a population of 29,000,000, and maintains them, if anything, more easily than she did the smaller number. No one supposes that the extreme limits of her possible increase have been reached. There can be little doubt that a large emigration from China would remove the congestion of some of its districts, and powerfully stimulate Chinese trade, as colonies needing Chinese products were formed. There seems no reason why
doubles in less than sixty years. Dr. Williams regards the census of 1879 as too high by 25,000,000.—The Middle Kingdom, vol. i. pp. 263-270. Mr. Smith treats every Chinese census as fanciful.—Chinese Characteristics, pp. 235, 236.
The population of Szechuen was 22,256,964 in 1842, and 67,712,897 in 1882.—Arbeiten der Kaiserlichen Russischen Gesandschaft, 1852-1857, übersetzt von Abel, Band ii. S. 193; Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1887, pp. 688-694.
