fabrication and exaggeration, yet, in a matter where the only trial of veracity is to transmit returns from the people to the government, and to record them in public documents, we do not see why they may not be believed. The documents, thus drawn up and published by the Chinese executive, are not intended for the eyes of foreigners, or meant to exalt native resources in the estimation of surrounding nations; on the contrary, the emperor, in the edicts referring to the population, does not speak of its amount in a boasting, but a complaining tone; for, like another Malthus, he is afraid lest the increase of population should entrench on the means of subsistence, and a famine be produced; he, therefore, exhorts the people to diligence in husbandry, that they may raise as many of the necessaries of life as possible, and to economy in their expenditure, that they make them go as far as they can.
Now, however mendacious the Chinese may generally be, we can only expect them to gratify their lying propensities when interest allures, or when they have no means for ascertaining the truth. That they can have no interest in deceiving the world, is evident from their unconsciousness of these statements being published to the world; and that they have every possible means of ascertaining the amount of the population, will appear from the manner in which those returns are made, and the census obtained. The law on this subject, is as follows:—
