If, from the whole of British America, we should select Upper Canada only as our standard, the rate of increase would be still more prodigious. At the passing of the Canada Legislation bill in 1791, the population of this province was es timated to be only 10,000.* In the war of 1812 it had enlarged to 50,000,† and in 1833 it amounted to above 296,000.‡ Thus, in forty-two years, its inhabitants had multiplied, not in a fourfold, or even a tenfold ratio, but in nearly a thirtyfold proportion. They were almost thirty times as numerous in 1833 as they had been in 1791. What a glaring self-delusion it would be if we should build on this event a hypothesis that population had a perpetual tendency to increase in a thirtyfold ratio! Yet this would be as rational as it was to make the doublings in the North American States the basis for deducing the law and principle of human multiplication, and not to perceive that immigration had produced the extraordinary numbers in the one country as well as we can prove it to have done in the other. It would be indeed more rational to make British America the standard than the republican provinces, because the additions from immigration were more likely to be more numerous into these than into our present colonies. Our immigrations have been from Great Britain and Ireland alone ; while settlers from all parts of Europe and from the West Indies, and a continual importation of

463,938 Brit. Mag., 1833, p. 690.

*Bishop Tomlins's "Life of William Pitt," vol. ii., p. 380. Lower Canada was then computed to contain 100,000 persons.-Ib. But in 1831 the number had arisen, as above, to 591,863. This was nearly a sixfold increase in forty years.

"In the war of 1812, Upper Canada, with a population of only 50,000, repelled its invaders."-Un. Serv. Jour., July, 1832.

By the returns to the House of Assembly, Upper Canada contained in 1823, 150,169; in 1827, 176,059; in 1830, 234,865; and in 1833, 296,544. -Montg. Martin's Colonies, vol. i., p. 207.

Thus Scotland alone has nearly peopled Prince Edward's Island in these parts. This island contains from 30 to 35,000 souls, most of them emigrants, who do not speak any other language but that of their native country, the Gaelic of the Highlands.-Bib. Soc. Report, 1802, p. 86.

slaves from Africa,* have swelled the numbers of the North American population.

Nor can there be a doubt that our Canadian augmentation has arisen chiefly from immigration; for we have some accounts of the actual emigrants who went over, which justify the ascription of the multiplication to their successive influx. In the four years from 1829 to 1832, no fewer than 145,000 emigrants arrived in Canada,† and a continued stream had been flowing to it, though in less numbers, during the preceding periods. The increase of the population of the United States has been so much promoted and produced by the same enlarging cause which has thus advanced the numbers of Canada, that the reasoning and inferences which apply to the one are as just and necessary to the other. The multiplication of either has not arisen solely from that of the original settlers, according to the natural law of human population acting on these; but likewise from the continual influx of new colonists, and from their perpetual reproductions and expansions in their posterity. The general laws of human multiplication must

It is scarcely necessary to inform the American reader, that in making this statement Mr. Turner has committed a great error.—Am. Ed. I find them thus enumerated and distinguished:

"Emigrants to Canada for the last four years.

1829. 1830. 1831. 1832.

3,565 6,799 10,243 17,731 9,614 18,300 34,133 27,631

2,643 2,450 6,354 4,379 123 451 424 164

15,945 28,000 51,154 49,905

Making, in all, 145,004 souls."-M. Martin's Col., vol. i., p. 328. In the ten years before 1829, the following numbers have been stated as arriving at Quebec.

11,697

New Farmers' Journal,-15th June, 1834.

So rapidly do numbers increase from immigration, that the Governor of Upper Canada, in his speech to its parliament on 31st October, 1832, stated that its population had increased one fourth since the previous session of the legislative body; that is, within a few months.

not therefore be deduced from these countries, nor from any to which immigrations so largely flow.*

The

From the same cause of artificial multiplication, from sources distinct from the natural increase of the original stems, RUSSIA, though it has been resorted to as a prop to the geometrical theory, cannot be exhibited as giving it any confirmation in its augmented numbers; because this country has been, during the last century, gradually enlarged in its population by conquest, as America has been by immigration. Russian population in 1724, under the reign of Peter_the Great, was about eleven millions and a half;† but at the Empress Catharine's death, in 1796, it had become 29,177,980,‡ and is now supposed to be from fifty to fifty-four millions. But one third of these are the present amount of the inhabitants of her added provinces, which have been successively obtained during the last century. The amount of these is surprising when put together. Even those which she has

*The augmentation of particular towns from settlers is striking. Thus Mr. Dunlop remarks of one, that, sixteen years ago, the town of Rochester consisted of a tavern and blacksmith's shop; it now contains 16,000 inhabitants.-The Backwoodsman, ch. 3.

The first census of Peter the Great, in 1722, gave the males paying taxes at 5,794,928, which, with an equal proportion of females, would amount to 11,589,856.-Pink. Russia. The males in 1724 are stated by Sieverni, in the Arkh., 1825, as 5,373,030.--Bull. Univ., t. 11, p. 307.

Sadler's Popul., vol. ii., p. 484. Dr. Pinkerton mentions the numhers in 1812 as 37,700,000. Mr. Sadler, from the additions of the annual excess of births, makes them 36,797,221 in that year.

Dr. Pinkerton, in his "Russia," states these to be,
The Poles and Lithuanians

Finns, Livonians, Esthonians, and Germans
Jews

The Caucasian, Crismena, Kacan, Astrachan, Bask-
keer, Kenjizian, and Siberian Tartars, all Moham-
medans

8,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000

2,000,000

The Memphian, Kalmuck, Manjur, and other heathen
tribes of Siberia belonging to the Buddish and Sha-
man idolatry

1,000,000

The Georgian nation, with the recently conquered
provinces of Persia, and the Armenians

1,500,000

17,500,000

He reckons the Russians themselves to be now thirty-six millions, and thus considers the collective amount of all to be above fifty-four millions,

The author of the " Progress of Russia" remarks that she " has made acquisitions from SWEDEN greater than what remains of that ancient kingdom; her acquisitions from POLAND are as large as the whole Aus

gained since 1772 have more than doubled the previous extent of her territorial empire in Europe.* The numerical increase of her population cannot therefore be adduced in support of the Malthusian ratio. Nor is it likely, if it were correctly ascertained, that it could ever confirm it, on account of the servile state of its people; for it seems that a very minor part only of them are not in this class. The rest are still slaves, without any civil rights; and as they cannot marry without their owners' leave, we may be sure that such masters would never let their multiplication be inconvenient to them.‡ It is painful to add that there is at present no prospect of their being relieved from this depressing condition. The territorial additions of Russia, and the servile subjection of her people, so unfavourable to rapid increase of population, preclude her from being the standard of its natural laws.||

trian empire; that the territory she has wrested from TURKEY IN EUROPE is equal to the dominions of Prussia, exclusive of her Rhenish Provinces; her acquisitions from TURKEY IN ASIA are equal in extent to all the smaller states of Germany, the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, Belgium, and Holland taken together; the country she has conquered from PERSIA is about the size of England, and her acquisitions in TARTARY have an area equal to Turkey in Europe, Greece, Italy, and Spain."-See the "Progress of Russia in the East."

* "The territory she has acquired within the last sixty-four years is greater in extent and importance than the whole empire she had in Europe before that time."-Ib.

† Dr. Pinkerton notices the privileged orders in Russia to be,

The slaves are in two orders, those of the crown and those of the nobility. "The slaves belonging to the nobility are estimated at above twenty-one millions. Those of the crown at fourteen millions."-Dr. Pinkerton's Russia.

Dr. Pinkerton informs us that," properly speaking, the Russian slave has no right and can possess no property. Himself, his wife, and children, and all that he possesses, are the property of his lord. He cannot purchase, enter into trade, or marry without his lord's consent."

"The Emperor Alexander had a great desire to raise the slave from this degraded condition; but his plans met with a decided opposition from the principal boiars in the empire, and since his death no attempt has been made by government to further his enlightened purposes."— Pinkerton's Russia.

A Russian thus states her successive enlargement: "When Peter the Great acceded to his throne, the extent of Russia was 534,878 square

LETTER VIII.

The state of the American Population from 1800 to 1830 unfavourable to the Malthusian Theory.

MY DEAR SON,

As the Malthusian theory originated from calculations on the apparent population of the united provinces of North America, and has been adhered to chiefly on that account, I think it right to suggest some further considerations which seem to indicate, from its own elements, that it is not possible it can double itself in the alleged ratio of twenty-five years.

Human life, instead of being longer, appears to be briefer there than in most European countries; and yet the marriages are not much more prolific than is necessary to keep up a population to a subsisting amount. As the general impression has been very contrary to this, I will explain the facts and reasoning on which my conclusion has been formed.

We find, from the North American census of 1800, that in the United States at that date nearly one third of the white population was under ten years of age; that above half of it were under sixteen years, and nearly two thirds under twentysix ;* so that not much more of their living males than one

leagues; his conquests added to it 20,000 more. Catharine I. and Peter II. also enlarged it. The Empress Anne obtained 88,000 square leagues, so that, at the end of her reign, Russia contained 641,048 square leagues. Catharine II. extended largely its aggrandizement, and even Paul I., so that in 1799 it comprised 698,944 square leagues. Under Alexander, by various events and treaties, and since, it was so enlarged as to comprise, in 1834, 725,780 square leagues, having gained 210,000 square leagues in one century, and all rich and fertile provinces."-Russland's Territorial Vergræsserans. It was then under forty-three eparchies or governments. *In the census of 1800, the free white males were returned as being 2,194,225; of these, the first class, under ten years, were 715,046. Those above this age, but under sixteen, were 343,650, making, together, 1,058,696 males under sixteen. Those of sixteen and under twentysix were 393,934. Thus the males in 1800, under twenty-six years old, were 1,452,630 out of 2,194,225. This was rather less than two thirds, as these would have been 1,462,816,-Gen. View of Un, States, P. 53.