decision was a right one. Inquiries regarding the age of individuals would have been certain to cause difficulty, and the results when obtained would not have been valuable. There is hardly one native in a thousand who knows how old he is, and the information collected on the point must have been more or less untrustworthy. Even in the simple distinction of children from adults, the results cannot be depended on. It will be seen that the boys everywhere largely exceed the girls, while the number of adult men always falls short of that of adult women. The explanation of this, however, is obvious. Girls arrive at maturity sooner than boys, and many of them are returned as women while males of the same age continue to be classed as boys. In this country also girls are married while mere children, and are not unfrequently mothers at the age of fourteen. They come to be looked upon as women at an earlier age than that at which a boy would be reckoned to have attained manhood.

Excluding Hill Tipperah and the Naga and Garo Hills as before, the total number of persons returned as under twelve years of age is 22,995,977, against 43,676,702 returned as being over that age. Distinguishing these classes as children and adults respectively, we find that of the former class 12,530,272 are males and 10,465,705 females. Among the adults 20,868,333 are males and 22,808,369 are females. Thus 34.5 per cent. of the population is said to be under twelve years of age, and 65.5 per cent. over that age. The proportion per cent. of the adults and children of each sex according to the returns is as follows: men, 31.3; boys, 18.8; women, 34.2; girls, 15.7.

The excessive proportion of children in an Indian population, as contrasted with European countries, has been frequently brought to notice. In the North-West, at the census of 1865, the proportion per cent. of children under twelve in the population was found to be 35.58; in the Punjab it was 35-42; in Oudh, 36; and now in Bengal it is 34.5. In England, which of all European countries has the largest proportionate number of children, the percentage up to twelve years of age upon the total population is 29.44.

Arranging the figures for each division, Mr. Beverley shows the following results :

In the Burdwan division the children form 30.9 per cent. of the population.

In the Burdwan and Presidency divisions, therefore, the proportion of children appears to be abnormally low for India; in Chittagong and Bhaugulpore, and especially Chota Nagpore, it is much above the general average for Bengal.

"In the Burdwan division," Mr. Beverley says, "we find that in the Hooghly and Burdwan districts, where the epidemic fever has

P

been raging, the proportion of children in the population is not more than 29.2 and 29-4 respectively. In Beerbhoom the percentage is 31.4; in Midnapore, 32-3; and in Bancoorah, where there has been no fever at all, 33.6."

Calcutta has only 14.8 per cent. of its population under 12 years of age. This is of course explained by its existence as an emporium of trade-a colluvies gentium, where male adults from all parts of the world settle temporarily for purposes of trade without becoming permanent residents.

In the Orissa, Rajshahye, Dacca, and Chittagong divisions, the distribution of children is more even, and calls for no special remark.

In Behar the percentage is fully up to the average. In the Sonthal Pergunnahs the children are remarkably numerous, forming as much as 40.7 per cent of the population. In the Sonthal villages, in that portion of the Damun-i-koh which lies in Rajmehal, the children under 12 constitute 47.5 per cent of the population. In Godda the percentage is 46.5. In the Paharia villages the percentage of children is 41 and 40.5 respectively.

In the Chota Nagpore division we find the proportion of children as follows in each district :

In Assam the proportion of children is large; yet it is said that the population of Assam does not increase, a fact, if it be a fact, which demands inquiry.

The proportion of children is greater among Mahomedans than among Hindoos in Bengal. In some cases the difference is only slight, that is in Behar and elsewhere where the Mahomedans chiefly belong to the upper classes. But in the districts where the Mahomedans are more numerous-in the central and eastern districtsthe Mahomedans would seem to have very much larger families than the Hindoos. In the Dacca and Chittagong divisions the difference is considerable, the percentage of children among Mahomedans being as much as 38.2 and 404 respectively. In Dacca, Mymensingh, and Sylhet, the children of Mahomedans are nearly one-fourth as numerous again as those of Hindoos. In Tipperah the percentage among Mahomedans is 392; among Hindoos only 29.4. It is where the Mahomedans form the great bulk of the agricultural class that their children are most numerous.

But relatively the children are most numerous among the aboriginal tribes. These tribes indeed seem to be the most prolific race in India. The western aborigines are every day sending colonies into Bengal, besides furnishing emigrant labourers for the tea districts and for countries beyond the sea.

OCCUPATION OF THE PEOPLE.

Agricultural.

are

The detailed figures in regard to occupations are perhaps not altogether trustworthy. The principal division into agriculturalists and nonagriculturalists cannot very well be defined, because many persons who have trades and professions hold or cultivate land as well, and most of the labourers so classed agricultural, while many others, who come under caste names implying trades, are really cultivators, pure and simple. The LieutenantGovernor has little doubt that a larger proportion than are shown do in fact live by agricultural pursuits, or by trades directly connected with agriculture. Statement VI appended to this chapter shows the occupations of the adult males included in each of the provinces of Bengal. Out of nearly 21 millions of adult males more than 13 millions fall within the agricultural class. The merchant and trading classes number nearly a million and a quarter; the artizans two and a quarter million; persons in service over a million, the great bulk of whom, if there were accurate detailed information, would probably fall under one of the other classes. Professional persons number nearly 400,000, but this class includes many such as drummers and dancers, whose claim to practise a profession may be fairly questioned. We have a total of 7 millions of non-agriculturist adult males, to 13 millions of agriculturalists, but there is no doubt that a large number not specifically described as agricultural, and therefore omitted from that class, should have been shown in it. Our knowledge of the occupations of the people as derived from the census is, however, limited to these general facts. The detailed occupation tables of Mr. Beverley's report are not to be depended on as accurate.

Non-agricultural.

The extraordinary absence of large towns is one of the most

Absence of large towns.

remarkable statistical features of Bengal. The population beyond Calcutta and the suburbs seems to be almost wholly rural. Patna has 159,000 people, and there are a few secondrate towns in Behar. In Bengal proper the largest town is Dacca, 69,000. The supposed great city of Moorshedabad, the seat of the Nawab Nazim and his numerous followers, even including some outlying places not properly in the city, has only 46,000 souls; and there is not another town above 31,000, and scarcely a dozen averaging 20,000 each. Rungpore, the capital of the great district of Rungpore, contains 6,100 souls, and Jessore, 8,152; each of these districts having a population of over two millions.

The census of towns was ordinarily effected by the municipal authorities, and the manner of taking it was pretty much the same everywhere. In most towns the census were completed in a single night. In the North-Western Provinces it is said that it is in the towns. that the greatest difficulties are met with in taking a census; but in Bengal the towns, such as they are, are found to be more manageable than the rural districts. A question indeed was raised as to the accuracy of the returns from some of the Behar towns and from Dacca, but the special reports which were called for and have

been received on the subject leave no room for the expression of serious doubt.

Census of Calcutta.

The census of Calcutta was effected under the superintendence of the city municipality. As the original papers have been destroyed, it is now impossible to test in any way the accuracy of the returns of the population. But there are reasons for believing them not to be very trustworthy. There are a large number of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the totals, and in the classified lists. It can scarcely be doubted that the census of Calcutta was inaccurately taken, but as to what extent error exists, it is almost impossible to hazard an opinion. It is probable that the real population exceeds what is shown in the census figures.

In any case the population of Calcutta and its suburbs is really large. It is quite out of place to compare the nominal population of Madras and Bombay with Calcutta, because, while they, it is believed, include large areas of a suburban character, Calcutta proper is really in some sense only what the city of London is to real London. The Circular Road, which separates Calcutta from the suburbs, is a street which no stranger would suppose to be anything but a Calcutta street. To get the population of Calcutta we must take then at least

It may further be said that the towns of Serampore, Chinsurah, and Hooghly on one railway, and Barrackpore, Dum-Dum, and other places on the other railway, are practically suburbs of Calcutta; and that of the 3,500,000 inhabitants of Hooghly and the 24-Pergunnahs, a large proportion are in fact connected with Calcutta. Under these circumstances it is much to be regretted that the Calcutta census should have been so imperfect. The census here was taken with more detail than in the interior, and the results, if properly arrived at and reported, would have been more interesting and important than elsewhere.

The statistics regarding persons afflicted with infirmities are probably not very accurate, and we must await another occasion before we can draw any trustworthy conclusions from the figures that have been furnished. A good deal of failure has unfortunately also, it is feared, attended the inquiries which were instituted regarding the existing schools in the country and the number of persons attending them. This decision was not taken till quite the close of 1871, and the requisite forms did not reach the enumerators in many instances until too late.

favorable.

From a financial point of view the census was extraordinarily successful. The total charges conThe financial aspect of the census very nected with the census aggregated to £21,600. For a population of sixty-seven millions this is equivalent to a charge of about one farthing per head. At the last census of England the cost of the enumeration alone of a population of 22 millions was £78,299. The census of 1861 cost £139,885. The American census of 1850 for 23 millions cost upwards of £300,000.

Since Mr. Beverley has Results of census in course of summary and compilation.

gone home on his well-earned furlough, of which he availed himself very early in 1873, the charge of the census office has devolved upon Mr. C. F. Magrath, Inspector of Registration. This officer has now been employed for some months in the laborious compilation of a summary of the census returns for each district. These are now completed, and have been printed and supplied to the local offices. They are in each district prefixed to a book, in which the population of every town and village is entered with the main divisions of the population into male and female, Mahomedan, Hindoo or "other" religion, and the caste and tribal divisions are also given carefully and fully. The original census returns are carefully preserved, arranged village by village and thannah by thannah, so as to be available for future reference.

In order to show the general results of the census, the LieutenantGovernor has directed the following abstract statements to be appended to

Statistical statements.

the present chapter of this report:

I. Area and population of the several provinces of Bengal. II. Abstract of the area and population of each district in Bengal, arranged according to provinces and Commissioners' divisions.

III. General statement of the result of the census of Bengal, arranged with reference to age and sex.

IV. General statement of the result of the census of Bengal, arranged with reference to religion and occupation.

V. Statement showing the population of each of the provinces

of Bengal, arranged according to race, class, or nationality.

VI. Statement showing occupations of the adult males included

in the census of each of the provinces of Bengal.