country, neither with regard to Ireland nor China; on the contrary, the
latter is generally supposed to be overstocked with people; that the
land is insufficient for their maintenance, and that the cities stand so
thick one after the other, especially along the grand navigation between
Pekin and Canton, that they almost occupy the whole surface. I should
not, however, have expected to meet with an observation to this effect
from the very learned commentator on the _voyage of Nearchus_, founded
on no better authority than the crude notes of one _Æneas Anderson_, a
livery servant of Lord Macartney, vamped up by a London bookseller as a
speculation that could not fail, so greatly excited was public curiosity
at the return of the Embassy. I would not be thought to disparage the
authority on account of its being that of a livery servant; on the
contrary, the notes of the meanest and dullest person, on a country so
little travelled over, would be deserving attention before they came
into the hands of a _book-dresser_; but what dependence can be placed
on the information of an author who states as a fact, that he saw tea
and rice growing on the banks of the _Pei-ho_, between the thirty-ninth
and fortieth parallels of latitude, two articles of the culture of
which, in the whole province of _Pe-tche-lee_, they know no more than we
do in England; and who ignorantly and impertinently talks of the
shocking ideas the Chinese entertained of English cruelty, on seeing one
of the guard receive a few lashes, when, not only the common soldiers,
but the officers of this nation are flogged most severely with the
bamboo on every slight occasion. If Doctor Vincent, from reading this
book, was really persuaded that the cities of China were so large and so
numerous, that they left not ground enough to subsist the inhabitants, I
could wish to recall his attention for a few moments to this subject, as
opinions sanctioned by such high authority, whether right or wrong, are
sure, in some degree, to bias the public mind. We have seen that if
China be allowed to contain three hundred and thirty-three millions of
people, the proportion of its population is only just double that of
Great Britain. Now if London and Liverpool and Birmingham and Glasgow,
and all the cities, towns, villages, gentlemen's villas, farm-houses and
cottages in this island were doubled, I see no great inconvenience
likely to arise from such duplication. The unproductive land, in the
shape of gentlemen's parks and pleasure grounds, would, I presume, be
much more than sufficient to counterbalance the quantity occupied by the
new erections; and the wastes and commons would perhaps be more than
enough to allow even a second duplication. But the population of an
English city is not to be compared with, or considered as similar to,
the populousness of a Chinese city, as will be obvious by considering
the two capitals of these two empires. Pekin, according to a measurement
supposed to be taken with great accuracy, occupies a space of about
fourteen square miles. London, with its suburbs, when reduced to a
square, is said to comprehend about nine square miles. The houses of
Pekin rarely exceed a single story; those of London are seldom less than
four; yet both the Chinese and the missionaries who are settled in this
capital agree that Pekin contains three millions of people; while London
is barely allowed to have one million. The reason of this difference is,
that most of the cross streets of a Chinese city are very narrow, and
the alleys branching from them so confined, that a person may place one
hand on one side and the other on the other side as he walks along[66];
that the houses in general are very small, and that each house contains
six, eight, or ten persons, sometimes twice the number. If, therefore,
fourteen square miles of buildings in China contain three millions of
inhabitants, and nine square miles of buildings in England one million,
the population of a city in China will be to that of a city in England
as twenty-seven to fourteen, or very nearly as two to one; and the
former, with a proportion of inhabitants double to that of the latter,
will only have the same proportion of buildings; so that there is no
necessity of their being so closely crowded together, or of their
occupying so great a portion of land, as to interfere with the quantity
necessary for the subsistence of the people.
[66] One of the streets in the suburbs of Canton is emphatically called
_Squeeze-gut-alley_, which is so narrow that every gentleman in the
Company's service does not find it quite convenient to pass.
I have been thus particular, in order to set in its true light a subject
that has been much agitated and generally disbelieved. The sum total of
three hundred and thirty-three millions is so enormous, that in its
aggregate form it astonishes the mind and staggers credibility; yet we
find no difficulty in conceiving that a single square mile in China may
contain two hundred and fifty-six persons, especially when we call to
our recollection the United Provinces of Holland, which have been
calculated to contain two hundred and seventy inhabitants on a square
mile. And the United Provinces have enjoyed few of the advantages
favourable to population, of which China, for ages past, has been in the
uninterrupted possession.
The materials for the statement given by Father Amiot of the population
of China appear to have been collected with care. The number of souls in
1760, according to this statement
was 196,837,977
In 1761 198,214,553
-----------
Annual increase 1,376,576
This statement must however be incorrect, from the circumstance of some
millions of people being excluded who have no fixed habitation, but are
constantly changing their position on the inland navigations of the
empire, as well as all the islanders of the Archipelago of _Chu-san_ and
of Formosa. Without, however, taking these into consideration, and by
supposing the number of souls in 1761, to amount to 198,214,553, there
ought to have been, in the year 1793, by allowing a progressive
increase, according to a moderate calculation in political arithmetic,
at least 280,000,000 souls.
Whether this great empire, the first in rank both in extent and
population, may or may not actually contain 333 millions of souls, is a
point that Europeans are not likely ever to ascertain. That it is
capable of subsisting this and a much greater population has, I think,
been sufficiently proved. I know it is a common argument with those who
are not willing to admit the fact, that although cities and towns and
shipping may be crowded together in an astonishing manner, on and near
the grand route between the capital and Canton, yet that the interior
parts of the country are almost deserted. By some of our party going to
_Chu-san_, we had occasion to see parts of the country remote from the
common road, and such parts happened to be by far the most populous in
the whole journey. But independent of the small portion of country seen
by us, the western provinces, which are most distant from the grand
navigation, are considered as the granaries of the empire; and the
cultivation of much grain, where few cattle and less machinery are used,
necessarily implies a corresponding population. Thus we see from the
above table, that the surplus produce of the land remitted to Pekin from
the provinces of
Oz. silver.
Honan } remote from the grand { 3,213,000
Shan-see } navigation, were { 3,722,000
Shen-see } { 2,040,000
Whilst those of
Pe-tche-lee } on the grand navigation, { 3,036,000
Shan-tung } were { 3,600,000
Tche-kiang } { 3,810,000
chiefly in rice, wheat, and millet. There are no grounds therefore for
supposing that the interior parts of China are deserts.
There are others again who are persuaded of the population being so
enormous, that the country is wholly inadequate to supply the means of
subsistence; and that famines are absolutely necessary to keep down the
former to the level of the latter. The loose and general way in which
the accounts of the missionaries are drawn up certainly leave such an
impression; but as I have endeavoured to shew that such is far from
being the case, it may be expected I should also attempt to explain the
frequency of those disastrous famines which occasionally commit such
terrible havock in this country. I am of opinion then, that three
principal reasons may be assigned for them. First, the equal division of
the land: Secondly, the mode of cultivation: and Thirdly, the nature of
the products.
If, in the first place, every man has it in his option to rent as much
land as will support his family with food and clothing, he will have no
occasion to go to market for the first necessities; and such being
generally the case in China, those first necessities find no market,
except in the large cities. When the peasant has brought under tillage
of grain as much land as may be sufficient for the consumption of his
own family, and the necessary surplus for the landlord, he looks no
further; and all his neighbours having done the same, the first
necessities are, in fact, unsaleable articles, except in so far as
regards the demands of large cities, which are by no means so close
upon one another as has been imagined. A surplus of grain is likewise
less calculated to exchange for superfluities or luxuries than many
other articles of produce. This being the case, if, by any accident, a
failure of the crops should be general in a province, it has no relief
to expect from the neighbouring provinces, nor any supplies from foreign
countries. In China there are no great farmers who store their grain to
throw into the market in seasons of scarcity. In such seasons the only
resource is that of the government opening its magazines, and restoring
to the people that portion of their crop which it had demanded from them
as the price of its protection. And this being originally only a tenth
part, out of which the monthly subsistence of every officer and soldier
had already been deduced, the remainder is seldom adequate to the wants
of the people. Insurrection and rebellion ensue, and those who may
escape the devouring scourge of famine, in all probability, fall by the
sword. In such seasons a whole province is sometimes half depopulated;
wretched parents are reduced, by imperious want, to sell or destroy
their offspring, and children to put an end, by violence, to the
sufferings of their aged and infirm parents. Thus, the equal division of
land, so favourable to population in seasons of plenty, is just the
reverse when the calamity of a famine falls upon the people.
In the second place, a scarcity may be owing to the mode of cultivation.
When I mention that two-thirds of the small quantity of land under
tillage is cultivated with the spade or the hoe, or otherwise by manual
labour, without the aid of draught-cattle or skilful machinery, it will
readily be conceived how very small a portion each family will be likely
to employ every year; certainly not one-third part of his average
allowance.
The third cause of famines may be owing to the nature of the products,
particularly to that of rice. This grain, the staff of life in China,
though it yields abundant returns in favourable seasons, is more liable
to fail than most others. A drought in its early stages withers it on
the ground; and an inundation, when nearly ripe, is equally destructive.
The birds and the locusts, more numerous in this country than an
European can well conceive, infest it more than any other kind of grain.
In the northern provinces, where wheat, millet and pulse are cultivated,
famines more rarely happen; and I am persuaded that if potatoes and
Guinea corn (_Zea-Mays_) were once adopted as the common vegetable food
of the people, those direful famines that produce such general misery
would entirely cease, and the encrease of population be as rapid as that
of Ireland. This root in the northern provinces, and this grain in the
middle and southern ones, would never fail them. An acre of potatoes
would yield more food than an acre of rice, and twice the nourishment.
Rice is the poorest of all grain, if we may judge from the slender and
delicate forms of all the people who use it as the chief article of
their sustenance; and potatoes are just the contrary[67].
[67] The great advantage of a potatoe crop, as I before observed, is the
certainty of its success. Were a general failure of this root to take
place, as sometimes happens to crops of rice, Ireland, in its present
state, would experience all the horrors that attend a famine in some of
the provinces of China.
As Dr. Adam Smith observes, "The chairmen, porters, and coal-heavers in
London, and those unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the
strongest men and the most beautiful women perhaps in the British
dominions, are said to be, the greater part of them, from the lowest
rank of the people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this root; no
food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of
its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution."
The Guinea corn requires little or no attention after the seed is
dropped into the ground; and its leaves and juicy stems are not more
nourishing for cattle than its prolific heads are for the sustenance of
man.
Various causes have contributed to the populousness of China. Since the
Tartar conquest it may be said to have enjoyed a profound peace; for in
the different wars and skirmishes that have taken place with the
neighbouring nations on the side of India, and with the Russians on the
confines of Siberia, a few Tartar soldiers only have been employed. The
Chinese army is parcelled out as guards for the towns, cities, and
villages; and stationed at the numberless posts on the roads and canals.
Being seldom relieved from the several guards, they all marry and have
families. A certain portion of land is allotted for their use, which
they have sufficient time to cultivate. As the nation has little foreign
commerce there are few seamen; such as belong to the inland navigations
are mostly married. Although there be no direct penalty levied against
such as remain batchelors, as was the case among the Romans when they
wished to repair the desolation that their civil wars had occasioned,
yet public opinion considers celibacy as disgraceful, and a sort of
infamy is attached to a man who continues unmarried beyond a certain
time of life. And although in China the public law be not established of
the _Jus trium liberorum_, by which every Roman citizen having three
children was entitled to certain privileges and immunities, yet every
male child may be provided for, and receive a stipend from the moment of
his birth, by his name being enrolled on the military list. By the equal
division of the country into small farms, every peasant has the means of
bringing up his family, if drought and inundation do not frustrate his
labour; and the pursuits of agriculture are more favourable to health,
and consequently to population, than mechanical employments in crowded
cities, and large manufactories, where those who are doomed to toil are
more liable to become the victims of disease and debauchery, than such
as are exposed to the free and open air, and to active and wholesome
labour. In China there are few of such manufacturing cities. No great
capitals are here employed in any one branch of the arts. In general
each labours for himself in his own profession. From the general poverty
that prevails among the lower orders of people, the vice of drunkenness
is little practised among them. The multitude, from necessity, are
temperate in their diet to the last degree. The climate is moderate and,
except in the northern provinces where the cold is severe, remarkably
uniform, not liable to those sudden and great changes in temperature,
which the human constitution is less able to resist, than the extremes
of heat or cold when steady and invariable, and from which the
inconveniences are perhaps nowhere so severely felt as on our own
island. Except the small-pox and contagious diseases that occasionally
break out in their confined and crowded cities, they are liable to few
epidemical disorders. The still and inanimate kind of life which is led
by the women, at the same time that it is supposed to render them
prolific, preserves them from accidents that might cause untimely
births. Every woman suckles and nurses her own child.
The operation of these and other favourable causes that might be
assigned, in a country that has existed under the same form of
government, and preserved the same laws and customs for so many ages,
must necessarily have created an excess of population unknown in most
other parts of the world, where the ravages of war, several times
repeated in the course of a century, or internal commotions, or
pestilential disease, or the effects of overgrown wealth, sometimes
sweep away one half of a nation within the usual period allotted to the
life of man.
"What a grand and curious spectacle," as Sir George Staunton observes,
"is here exhibited to the mind of so large a proportion of the whole
human race, connected together in one great system of polity, submitting
quietly and through so considerable an extent of country to one great
sovereign; and uniform in their laws, their manners, and their
language; but differing essentially in each of these respects from every
other portion of mankind; and neither desirous of communicating with,
nor forming any designs against, the rest of the world." How strong an
instance does China afford of the truth of the observation, that men are
more easily governed by opinion than by power.
CHAP. X.
Journey through the Province of Canton.--Situation of Foreigners trading
to this Port.--Conclusion.
_Visible change in the Character of the People.--Rugged
Mountains.--Collieries.--Temple in a Cavern.--Stone Quarries--Various
Plants for Use and Ornament.--Arrive at Canton--Expence of the Embassy
to the Chinese Government.--To the British Nation--Nature and
Inconveniences of the Trade to Canton--The Armenian and his
Pearl.--Impression of the Officers of Government instanced.--Principal
Cause of them is the Ignorance of the Language.--Case of Chinese trading
to London.--A Chinese killed by a Seaman of His Majesty's Ship
Madras.--Delinquent saved from an ignominious Death, by a proper Mode of
Communication with the Government_--Conclusion.
We had no sooner passed the summit of the high mountain _Me-lin_, and
entered the province of _Quan-tung_, or Canton, than a very sensible
difference was perceived in the conduct of the inhabitants. Hitherto the
Embassy had met with the greatest respect and civility from all classes
of the natives, but now even the peasantry ran out of their houses, as
we passed, and bawled after us _Queitze-fan-quei_, which, in their
language, are opprobrious and contemptuous expressions, signifying
_foreign devils_, _imps_; epithets that are bestowed by the enlightened
Chinese on all foreigners. It was obvious, that the haughty and
insolent manner in which all Europeans residing at, or trading to, the
port of Canton are treated, had extended itself to the northern frontier
of the province, but it had not crossed the mountain _Me-lin_; the
natives of _Kiang-see_ being a quiet, civil, and inoffensive people. In
_Quan-tung_ the farther we advanced, the more rude and insolent they
became. A timely rebuke, however, given to the governor of
_Nau-sheun-foo_ by _Van-ta-gin_, for applying the above mentioned
opprobrious epithets to the British Embassy, had a good effect on the
Canton officers, who were now to be our conductors through their
province.
This contempt of foreigners is not confined to the upper ranks, or men
in office, but pervades the very lowest class who, whilst they make no
scruple of entering into the service of foreign merchants residing in
the country, and accepting the most menial employments under them,
performing the duties of their several offices with diligence,
punctuality, and fidelity, affect, at the same time, to despise their
employers, and to consider them as placed, in the scale of human beings,
many degrees below them. Having one day observed my Chinese servant
busily employed in drying a quantity of tea-leaves, that had already
been used for breakfast, and of which he had collected several pounds, I
inquired what he meant to do with them: he replied, to mix them with
other tea and sell them. "And is that the way," said I, "in which you
cheat your own countrymen?" "No," replied he, "my own countrymen are too
wise to be so easily cheated, but your's are stupid enough to let serve
you such like tricks; and indeed," continued he, with the greatest
_sang froid_ imaginable, "anything you get from us is quite good enough
for you." Affecting to be angry with him, he said, "he meant for the
_second sort_ of Englishmen," which is a distinction they give to the
Americans[68].
[68] In the Canton jargon, _second chop Englishmen_; and even this
distinction the Americans, I understand, have nearly forfeited in the
minds of the Chinese.
The city of _Nan-sheun-foo_ was pleasantly situated on the high bank of
the river _Pei-kiang-ho_. The houses appeared to be very old, the
streets narrow, large tracts of ground within the walls unbuilt, others
covered with ruins. While the barges were preparing to receive on board
the baggage, we took up our lodgings in the public temple, that was
dedicated to the memory of Confucius, being, at the same time, the
college where the students are examined for their different degrees. It
consisted of a long dark room, divided by two rows of red pillars into a
middle and two side aisles, without furniture, paintings, statues, or
ornaments of any kind, except a few paper lanterns suspended between the
pillars; the floor was of earth, and entirely broken up: to us it had
more the appearance of a large passage or gang-way to some manufactory,
as a brewhouse or iron foundery, than of the hall of Confucius. On each
side, and at the farther extremity, were several small apartments, in
which we contrived to pass the night.
The barges in which we now embarked were very small, owning to the
shallowness of the river. The officers, assembled here from different
parts of the country, detained us a whole day in order to have an
opportunity of laying their several complaints before our physician, at
the recommendation of _Van-ta-gin_, who had felt the good effects of his
practice. Here, for once, we had an instance of Chinese pride giving way
to self-interest, and usurped superiority condescending to ask advice of
barbarians. We sailed for two days in our little barges, through one of
the most wild, mountainous, and barren tracts of country that I ever
beheld, abounding more in the sublime and horrible, than in the
picturesque or the beautiful. The lofty summits of the mountains seemed
to touch each other across the river and, at a distance, it appeared as
if we had to sail through an arched cavern. The massy fragments that had
fallen down from time to time, and impeded the navigation, were
indications that the passage was not altogether free from danger. Five
remarkable points of sand-stone rock, rising in succession above each
other with perpendicular faces, seemed as if they had been hewn out of
one solid mountain: they were called _ou-ma-too_, or the five horses'
heads. The mountains at a distance on each side of the river were
covered with pines, the nearer hills with coppice wood, in which the
Camellia prevailed; and in the little glens were clusters of fishermen's
huts, surrounded by small plantations of tobacco.
Within the defile of these wild mountains, we observed several extensive
collieries, which were advantageously worked by driving levels from the
river into their sides. The coals brought out of the horizontal _adits_
were immediately lowered from a pier into vessels that were ready to
receive and transport them to the potteries of this province, and of
_Kiang-see_. Coal is little used in its raw state, but is first charred
in large pits that are dug in the ground. Coal dust, mixed with earth,
and formed into square blocks, is frequently used to heat their little
stoves, on which they boil their rice.