Who, Sir?" asked do, Mr. Slyboots," ""Pon my honour,

or two before, and how it went off? Tom said he had, and they had a very pleasant evening, second supper, lots of dancing, and some good songs, and that there were strong suspicions that the general was a little "fou.” “Well,” said the colonel, “that's all right, but was she there ?" my friend, very innocently. Come, come, that won't said the colonel; "I know all about it; ha! ha! ha!” Sir," said Rattleton, blushing, "you are too enigmatical for me." " Capital," said the colonel, who was in a bantering humour, "why Prattle tells me it's all settled, license written for, and that you are going to cart her* immediately, ha ha! ha!" I saw, of course, that all this had reference to the spinster with the fine eyes. Though my friend affected ignorance of the matter, he was evidently flattered by being made the subject of such an agreeable on dit. Whilst this was going on, I was startled and surprised by seeing the head of a very pretty Indian lady, with jet black locks, large gazelle eyes, and a huge gold ring in her nose, pop from behind the purdah, or curtain, and the owner of which exclaimed, at the top of a very shrill voice, "Urree Dhyya Paundaunneelou." The colonel said something rather sharply; pettishly exclaimed the apparition, and the head and a pretty be-ringed hand were withdrawn, and immediately from an opposite door an elderly black duenna, with a pair of wrinkled trowsers, or pajammas, and half-concealed by a cowl-like sort of muslin robe, marched in a stately manner, sans cérémonie, her anklet bells jingling, right across the apartment, with a huge metal box under her arm, which I afterwards learnt was a betel-box, and which it seems was the article which the colonel's sultana stood in need of. Egad, thinks I to myself, they order things in the East rather differently from what they do in the West. After a little more conversation we took our leave, having previously received an invitation to dine the next evening with the quaint commandant.

To vau,

FROM KHĀKĀNĪ.

گویند که هر هزار سال از عالم

آید بوجود اهل وفاي محرم

آمد زین پیش و ما نا زاده از عدم

آید پس ازین و ما فرو رفته بغم

* A strong phrase for driving a lady out in a buggy; in India, looked upon as a strong symptom of an approaching matrimonial crisis,

STATISTICS OF CHINA.

M. PAUTHIER, of Paris, has published a translation* of certain official documents from the Ta-tsing-hwuy-teen, a collection of regulations of the reigning dynasty, which relate to the population, the lands, and the revenues of China. The date of the edition is not apparent from the copy of the work, which is in the Royal Library at Paris, but from internal evidence must be posterior to 1812: the preface is dated 1810. The results of these documents, being founded upon returns made for official and revenue purposes, are, therefore, to be relied upon.

The census of the population is directed to be taken, by means of registers accurately made, by special military officers, Manchoo, Mongol, and Chinese, under the supervision of the Board of Finance. The mode in which the numbers are obtained is as follows: the governor and lieutenant-governor of each province cause little tablets of wood (mun-pae, 'door-tablets'), which are attached to the doors of the different houses, in order that the exact number of persons inhabiting each may be inscribed on them, to be collected by certain officers, every year, when the assessment is made, and sent to the Board of Finance, where they are arranged, and a list is drawn up from them at the end of the year. The returns distinguish males, who have reached virility, and are subject to contribution, denominated Ting; and women and youths below puberty, who are called Kow, or mouths.' The whole population (Ting-kow) in the eighteen provinces of the empire amounted, in the seventeenth year of Kea-king, or A.D. 1812, to 361,693,179 souls, exclusive of the eight Tartar banners at Peking, and of the population of the dependencies beyond the frontiers of China Proper, which are not included in the

returns.

The numbers in the several provinces are as follow:

Chih-le (including Moukden and Kirin)

...

29,240,655 28,958,764

...

...

...

...

14,004,210

...

...

23,037,171

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

37,843,501 34,168,059 23,046,999

Fo-këen (including Formosa)

In the registers, the "honourable" population (leang) is distributed into four classes, namely, the people (min), the military (keun), the mercantile

• Documents Statisques Officiels sur l'Empire de la Chine. Traduits du Chinois, par G. PAUTHIER. Paris, 1841. Didot.

class (shang), and the 'fire-places' (tsaou); the tsëen, or vile population, comprises slaves, hired servants, courtezans, actors and actresses, and certain other classes in particular localities. The registers of adventurers (maou), persons who move about from place to place (kwa), cross the frontiers, and lodge at inns, are required to be kept with great vigilance.

The lands throughout the empire are classified under various heads, amongst which are the heo-teen, or fields for study, that is, land appropriated to the public education of the people. "In each province," says the Chinese commentator, "there are establishments for public instruction, which have lands appropriated to their support, and to the common maintenance of those who prosecute their studies there." All the lands in the empire are measured, and the quantity of cultivated land in the eighteen provinces, in the year 1812, was 7,915,251 king, and 96 mow, or about 150,000,000 English acres. The minute details which accompany this statement shew that it is the result of very exact returns.

The amount of the revenue, land and capitation taxes, &c., paid in money or bullion (besides what is taken in kind), in all the provinces and cities of the empire, is stated to be 32,845,474 silver leang, or taels, and 9,005,600 copper tseen, or cash. Reckoning the tael at 6s. 3d., and the cash at onetenth of the tael, the aggregate sum will be upwards of ten millions and a half sterling. The copper cash, however, which is collected only in the province of Kan-suh, is the para, a coin with which the Mahomedan tributaries of China, in Yarkand, Kashgar, &c., pay their capitation-tax, and which is worth less than a halfpenny: this would make the money revenue amount to £10,279,220, thus distributed :*

The amount of contributions in grain and pulse, of different kinds, was 4,356,382 shih (stone), a measure which is nearly equal to the French hectolitre, and in forage, 5,494,780 shìh, trusses or bundles.

These contributions are specified, in respect to species and quantity, under each province. We subjoin, as an example, the province of Chih-le in detail, giving the totals of the rest :—

* There is a slight discrepancy between the total amount and the details in the original work.

The commentary adds: "The white grain levied and transported to the court from the provinces of Shan-tung, Honan, Keang-nan, Chě-keang, Keang. se, and Hoo-quang, are not comprised in this statement."

THE BUCHANAN PAPERS.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR:-Dr. McCosh's little work, entitled Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger, which I have lately perused with much pleasure, contains a reflection on the Indian Government for neglecting the labours of the late Dr. Francis Buchanan, which the intelligent author would have qualified, at least, had he been aware of what I now proceed to state. It is consistent with my knowledge that, at the instance of one of the Calcutta secretaries, the voluminous manuscript reports of Dr. Buchanan were placed at the disposal of the editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and the boon of free postage accorded to its transmission to all parts of the Bengal presidency, on the condition that a certain portion of the statistics should be published with Asiat.Journ. N.S.VOL.36.No.143. Y

each number; thus ensuring the double advantage of extending the circulation of that valuable scientific periodical, and of bringing under the public eye the mass of important information contained in those reports. The following quotation from the preface to the first volume of the journal for the year 1832, abundantly confirms what I have stated:-"In furtherance of the desire of Government, the greater part of Dr. Buchanan's statistics of Dinagepore has been printed in a detached form, as commenced by the editor of the Gleanings (the original title of the journal); and to complete the work more speedily, two extra numbers have been issued in the course of the year. It will be remarked that there are many plates referred to in the text; the drawings alluded to are in the possession of the Hon. Court of Directors, along with the original manuscripts; and it was thought better to preserve the references, in case the Hon. Court might hereafter be persuaded to publish them, either in a separate form, or of a size adapted to the present edition. It must not be forgotten that it is this undertaking which gained to the Gleanings the valuable privilege of free postage through the Bengal presidency. The editor is happy to announce that the same boon has, in the most liberal manner, and without any solicitation, been extended to the presidency of Bombay, and to the government of Ceylon, by their enlightened Governors, his Excellency the Earl of Clare, and the Right Hon. Sir R. W. Horton, to whom his thanks are thus publicly and respectfully addressed.”

Subsequently to the departure from India of the public functionary above alluded to, in 1833, the boon of free postage was withdrawn from the Journal of the Asiatic Society, and the editor consequently discontinued the publication of the statistics. Mr. James Prinsep, the able and lamented editor of the journal, thus expressed himself on the subject, in a letter dated 7th January, 1834:-" You will have seen how scurvily I have been treated quoad Buchanan and postage. Had you been here, this would never have happened; and even now, through your representation to the Court (if you chance to be in London), something might be done to wipe out the stain on the liberality of Government, for such they esteem it at Paris- tracasseries mesquines' is their word."

I have never happened to see the three large volumes published under the title of Eastern India, to which Dr. McCosh alludes; but if the editor of those volumes has not done justice to Dr. Buchanan by publishing his name on the title-page, and stating what had been previously done by the Indian Government to give general circulation to his reports, I can only express my concurrence in Dr. McCosh's remarks. Your publication of this letter, if you deem it worthy a place in your journal, though it may strip a bird of some of its feathers, will, in some measure, supply the omission of the suum cuique tribuito, which Dr. McCosh so justly regrets.*

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

AN OLD INDIAN.

In our review of Eastern India, in the Asiatic Journal for March, 1839 (vol. xxviii. p. 234), we noticed the injustice done to Dr. Buchanan by the omission of his name on the title-page.-EDITOR.