AN ACCOUNT of the total Annual Revenues and Charges of the British Possessions in India, under the East India Company, from 1809-10 to 1829-30; showing also the Nett Charge of Bencoolen, Prince of Wales Island, and St. Helena, the Interest paid on account of Debts in India, and the Amount of territorial Charges paid in England.-(Part. Papers, No. 22. Sess. 1830, and No. 306. Sess. 1833.) ABSTRACT VIEW of the Revenues and Charges of India for the Years 1831-32, 1832-33, 1833-34, and (by estimate) 1834-35. 1,525,853 395,276 758,590 1,153,866 1,166,078 1,580,259 727,479 3,025,746 1,076,504 1,817,232 4,856,857 2,484,076 1,255,125 2,060,141 3,250,715 945,275 N.B. The Company realised in 1834-35, the sum of 10,679,2231. by the sale of commercial assets. The debts of the Company in India on the 30th of April, 1834, amounted to 35,463,4831., bearing an interest of 1,754,5451. a year. -(Parl. Paper, No. 380, Sess. 1836.) In 1805, according to the official returns, the total number of British-born subjects in Hindostan was 31,000. Of these 22,000 were in the army as officers and privates; the civil officers of government of all descriptions were about 2,000; the free merchants and mariners, who resided in India under covenant, about 5,000; the officers and practitioners in the courts of justice, 300; the remaining 1,700 consisted of adventurers, who had smuggled themselves out in various capacities. Since the date above mentioned, no detailed reports have been published; but there is reason to believe that, at present, the total number of British subjects in Hindostan does not much exceed 40,000; the removal of the restrictions on the commercial intercourse having, contrary to expectation, added very few to the previous number. That so small a number of individuals should be able to govern so vast a population, differing from them in language religion, and habits, is amongst the most extraordinary phenomena to be met with in the history of mankind. EXTENT AND POPULATION OF INDIA. - We copy the following table from the second edition of Mr. Hamilton's Indian Gazeteer. Some later accounts have been published as to the population of particular provinces; but we believe that this is the most accurate statement that has hitherto been framed, embracing the whole country. AN ACCOUNT of the Value of the Imports and Exports between Great Britain and all Places eastward of the Cape of Good Hope (excepting China); distinguishing the Private Trade from that of the East India Company, in each Year, from 1814 to the latest Period to which the same can be made. STATEMENT of the Nett Expenditure incurred by Great Britain, on account of her several Military and Maritime Stations, Colonies, and Plantations, during the Year 1833-34. (Parl. Paper, No. 408. Sess. 1835.) Repayments from Colonial Total Expenditure Advances in lishments. venues. toms, and Post 29,114 8 1 8,000 0 0 (26,676 18 7 371,010 5 93 6,052 6 3 37,114 8 1 1,920,287 16 7 431,241 14 550,173 14 52,401,703 5 5 13,471 16 94 50,865 15 54 2,364,309 6 9 403,739 10 72 37,114 8 1 CHAPTER VII.-VITAL STATISTICS. To exhibit the sanatory state of the British population as accurately as existing materials permit, we shall severally examine the mortality, the sickness, the epidemics, the endemics, the prevailing forms of sporadic disease, and the various ways in which, at all ages, its successive generations perish. Human existence may terminate at any instant between 0 and 100 years: it may be a constant process of disease, or remain uninterrupted by a day's sickness. On opening a watch, or any piece of mechanism, and observing the state of its springs, chains, or wheels, it is not difficult to foresee how long its movements will continue; but no one, contemplating a solitary individual of the human species, and ignorant of the secret sources of his life, as well as of the many conjunctures of external circumstances in which he may be placed, can foretell the period when some mortal derangement will occur in his organisation; what diseases he will encounter; how long he will suffer, or the hour when his sufferings and his existence will end. The same uncertainty is extended, in the popular thought, to families, nations, and mankind, considered in collective masses; but observation proves that generations succeed each other, develope their energies, are afflicted with sickness, and waste in the procession of their life, according to fixed laws-that the mortality and sickness of a people are constant in the same circumstances, or only revolve through a prescribed cycle, varying as the causes favourable or unfavourable to health preponderate. MORTALITY. The physiological changes in the human body intimate that it was framed to continue in healthy action 70 or 80 years: yet owing to hereditary weakness, or a vicious tendency, and the imperfect adaptation of parts of the external world to its organisation, a certain number of every generation fall sick, and of these a certain number die at all ages in such a ratio, however, that from birth to the age of puberty the sickness and mortality decline; while from puberty they increase slowly, in a geometrical progression, up to the 50th or 60th year, and then more rapidly to the end. In comparing, therefore, the sanatory state of different nations, it is not enough to know the absolute mortality or sickness to which they are subject; as experience has proved that these may be nearly the same, yet, from their bearing differently on the periods of childhood, manhood, or old age, have a very different effect on the national strength and resources. From observations to which we shall again have occasion to recur, it appears that in manhood, when 1 person in 100 dies annually, 2 are constantly sick: and although this exact relation is, perhaps, not preserved in infancy and old age, or where the rate of mortality deviates much from the standard, it may be safely assumed as a near approximation to the truth. Admitting, then, that the annual mortality is 2.13 per cent., after the corrected returns, and that the population of England and Wales is 14,000,000, the total number constanly disabled by sickness will amount to 600,000 persons; and if the same proportions be extended to Scotland and Ireland, to 1,130,000. This reduces the efficient population of the empire 1-24th part; and the productive power, so far as it depends on human labour, 1-18th part, if the maintenance and attendance of the sick cost half the produce of their labour in health*: an example will show how it would be erroneous to suppose that two populations, in which the same absolute proportion of sick existed, suffered consequently to an equal extent. A third part of the registered deaths occur below 5 years of age, yet the mortality in England has latterly (1813-30) not been more than 49.7 per 1,000 at this early age in Sweden it was (1755–75) 90.1 per 1,000; and it is probable that at the same period In the English provincial hospitals the maintenance and the drugs administered te each patient cost 1s. 5d. daily; in Paris 1s. 54d.; in London considerably more. — ( British Medical Almanac, p. 118.) the mortality of infants in England was not a great deal lower than in Sweden: so that, if sickness have diminished at the same rate, the proportion of infants constantly ill is not half so great as it was a century ago. But children being entirely helpless, and in no way contributing to the nation's actual strength, a diminution of sickness among them, however desirable, adds little immediately to national power and happiness, compared with an improvement in the health of adults, between the ages of 15 and 60 years, such as has been observed in London since the 16th century, when the destructive epidemics ceased. The magnitude of the subject, and the fact that more than a million of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom are disabled by disease and suffering, is of less importance than the consideration that their condition may be ameliorated to an immeasurable extent. In one class of English counties the mortality of males below 5 years of age is still 81.9 per 1,000, in others 41-9; and between the ages of 15 and 60 it varies from 110 to 190; implying a difference of 16 per 1,000 in the sickness; so that, if the health of the entire 13 millions, now between the ages of 15 and 60, in these islands, were as good as that enjoyed by the inhabitants of some counties, the numbers constantly sick would not be so numerous by 554,000, as if the standard of health were reduced to that obtaining in the more insalubrious districts. In the one case, the mean number sick would be 773,300; in the other, 1,336,000. Whether it be possible or not to raise the standard of health to the height enjoyed in the former counties, or to one still higher, the importance of the subject recommends it to a careful experimental investigation; because, when the character and causes of our diseases are known, some provision may be made for their alleviation; the extent of the injuries which they inflict upon the public will be determined; and the standard of salubrity, indicating an increase or diminution of physical strength, will afford the best index of the prosperity of the nation, and of the extent to which it is affected by atmospherical, political, or economical influences. The method pursued in obtaining the following results is unexceptionable, and demonstrates that for the last century the mortality of children in London has constantly been on the decline. I. TABLE showing the Births and the Deaths under 5 Years of Age, according to the "London Bills of Mortality" for 100 Years, in 5 Periods of 20 Years each; also showing the Number dying under 5 Years out of 100 born.* The general question of population has already been examined, and requires no further notice; but the deaths at different ages are so closely connected with health and with the great apparent changes in the diseases of this country, that we shall here present a comparative view of the rate of mortality that prevailed in England, Carlisle, * On the Diminution in the Mortality of Infants in England, by T. R. Edmonds, |