This system certainly enables the government to know, and to state accurately, the number of individuals, not only in every province, but in any given district of each or any one of the provinces. The Chinese empire having remained undisturbed by wars, or by internal commotions of much importance, for more than one hundred and twenty years, an accumulation has taken place on a comparatively small spot, of a moiety of all the human beings which are now in existence. On a first view of this immense, this incomprehensible number of living beings, we can scarcely believe the evidence of our senses or conceive how it is possible that sustenance can be procured for such an assemblage; but when we have ascertained that the country is nearly destitute of flocks and herds, that the ground is almost exclusively appropriated to the feeding and clothing of its inhabitants, that there are a less number of souls, by seventy to the square mile, than is found in the dutchy of Lucca, and but five more in the same space than in the Netherlands, which contains two hundred and seventy-five, our wonder in a great degree ceases, and we are compelled to believe that the Chinese government has published as accurate a statement of its population as any European government, or that of the United States: nor can we conceive what object the government can have in deceiving its own subjects, for the work is evidently not published for the use of curious inquirers abroad. It is also well known, that the inhabitants live in the most frugal manner, that a bowl of rice with a few vegetables, or perhaps a little fish or fowl, which is very abundant, is the entire provision of multitudes. Large portions of the country yield two crops annually, and those generally very abundant; the inhabitants also obtain provisions from the Persian gulf to the bay of Bengal, from Burmah, Siam and Cochin-China, and from every important island throughout the great Indian Archipelago. Every animal and vegetable substance is also an edible with one class or other of the people. Large quantities of vegetable produce, which in any other country would be devoured by the flocks and herds, are here consumed by human beings. If we regard the produce of the soil, and the manner in which the people live, we have strong presumptive evidence of a very numerous population. [Sidenote: HABITS OF THE CHINESE.] The Chinese of the present day are grossly superstitious; they offer sacrifices to the manes of deceased relatives and friends, and emblems of money and clothes are consumed on the supposition that a substantial benefit will be transferred to the individual in the world of spirits.