The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-10-20
THE POPULATION OF CHINA.
What nm Authority n. Home Say. Abou, It

What nm Authority Mt Home Says About IL.
Says the Shanghai Courier The
subject of the population of China is the
riddle of the Sphinx, ever guessed at
but never solved. And if it were solved
no one would ever know it, because
there can be no verifcation. In connec-
tion with our first knowledge of China
we are taught that its population is i'm
mense. Its millions TEEN. The delu-
siop of one or two generations ago that
Jeddo and Pekin are the worlds great
centers of population is scarcely yet dis
PEELED. Many Of the cities of the eigh.
teen provinces, especially in the south,
are undoubtedly enormous, and to the
casual traveller all Chinese cities are pre-
sumptively the same. He has learned
In his geography or read in his encyclo-
pedia that the population of Tientsin is
500, 900, and that of Pekin from /, ,500,
are generally accepted without question,
and on this scale smaller cities are
gauged. Thus we meet the most conf
dent estimates of population, formed on
scanty data, or ON no data at all, by every
latest traveller, who, like supreme
court, has the last guess at the case. The
difference between the high scale and
the low scale of estimating Chinese
cities is a difference of nearly one half.
There are those who cling to the old ira
dition that the population of Pekin is
1000, 900, and there are others who con-
slider zoe, 900 a liberal estimate. Little
or no dependence is to be placed on the
estimates of transient travellers. Even
long residents hesitate to express a de-
cided opinion, for experience has taught
them that such conjectures are often
misleading. 1t is as idle to inquire the
number of families in large city of
Intelligent natives, rs it would be to
ask an Intelligent native" the death
rate of Liverpool. There is, no doubt,
a death rate, and somewhere it is re-
corded. But it is not in the line of any
but physicians and coroners to know
what it is, unless it may have been pub
llshed In the morning paper. But the
Chinese have no morning papers, nor
any other paper. At certain yamens, no
doubt, some approximate statistics are
on file, but such things are utterly for
eign to the thought of ordinary Chinese.
In small villages the number Of families
is known to oil in large cities it sprac,
tically not known at all. It would be
wrong to disturb the worlds faith in the
proposition that China contains 400, 900,
600 inhabitants, proportion now gen
| orally accepted In spite of De Quincy &
skepticism. But let this multitude oi
human beings be apportioned in fail
and equitable manner among the smaller
towns and villages, and not thrust by
hundreds of thousands upon half empty
walled towns where they will find nc
visible means of support. If these re-.
marks should lead the casual reader to
inquire the population of Tai-yuan-fu,
he is informed that according to the doc
trine of the relativity of human knowl-
edge, if Pekin still keeps Ter 1900, 900
rs in the biographies, then the capital
of Shansi has 100000. But if Pekin is
reduced to $50, 900, then does Tai-yuan-
fu drop to 100000, "be the same more
or less. The average Englishman, whose
faith is said to be such that if safety
valve were only labeled "statistics he
would sit on it with perfect safety, is in
vited to take notice. %