TABLE, No. 1, continued. GENERAL VIEW OF THE POPULATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE; 47 Chewing the Number of Inhabitants in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and its Colonies and Dependencies, in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia, including the East India Company's Territorial Possessions, the Army, Navy, Marines, and Seamen in the Merchants' Service; -Distinguishing the Number of Europeans, Free Persons of Colour, and Negro Labourers :-Also the Number of Men in Arms in the British Empire.-As established from various Authentic Documents, and from the best accessible Information on the Subject where no Documents exist.- (1812.) ARMY, NAVY, MARINES, AND SEAMEN IN REGISTERED VESSEL, as per Returns to Parliament in 1811. 640,500 30,741 Grand Total 61,157,433 AGGREGATE POPULATION Great Britain and Ireland, exclusive of the Army, Navy, &c. BRITISH EMPIRE. Colonies and Dependencies in Europe NEGROES 42,008,291 1,147,346 Total 61,157,433 Colonies and Dependencies in Asia East India Company's Territorial Possessions Army, Navy, Marines, and Seamen in Registered Vessels, * 25,246 * 40,033,162 2,009,005 40,058,403 Totals 671,241 61,157,433 It appears from "Estimates presented to the House of Commons, of Army Services for the year 1812," (pages 14 and 16) that the charge for the year ending the 24th December 1812, is estimated on 5 Regiments of Dragoons and 19 Battalions of Foot, consisting of 28,161 Men, including Commissioned and Non-commissioned Officers, but as these are not always complete, and as it appears there are 485 men, belonging to these Corps, stationed in Great Britain for the purpose of recruiting for the Company's Service, the effective Force in their Territorial Possessions may be fairly taken at 17,000; and 3000 Luropean Officers, commanding the Native Army. Total 20,000. To this number is to be added, those composing the Native Army and the Marine in India, as per Table No. 14, A. In the Territories in the immediate Possession of the East India Company, as, the Presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, including the Prince of Waes's Island, and the Island of St. Helena, and the Establishments at Canton, and Fort Marlbro' Bencoolen. 48 CHAPTER II. AN ATTEMPT TO ESTIMATE THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROPERTY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, WITH THE COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES OF THE CROWN (FIFTY-THREE IN NUMBER), including ALSO THE BRITISH TERRITORIES UNDER THE MANAG ANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. The Causes of the increase of the Wealth of the British Empire explained.-The security of Property when once acquired.-The rapid increase of Property within the last Twenty Years -The difficulty of forming an Estimate of the whole Property.-An approximation is all that can be expected, since it will be sufficient to tranquillize the public mind.-The peculiar advantages which the British nation possesses over other Countries in acquiring Wealth by the diffusion of Property and by the resources which exist for the profitable employment of Capitals. In Agriculture at Home and in the Colonies.-In Commerce, Shipping, and Ma nufactures. A general View of the real and personal Property of the British Empire estimated at £4,081,530,895 Sterling, including the British Territories in the East Indies and Captured Colonies.-General Observations on the Causes from which the growing Prosperity and Wealth of the Nation are to be traced.-Observations on the public Property of the Nation-Concluding Remarks on the exalted state of the British Empire. IN all civilized countries the individuals comprising the body politic are distinguished from the population in savage life by the wealth or property which they possess, and which is more or less rendered secure by the power and efficacy of the Law. In the British dominions this security is more firmly established than perhaps in any country in the world. The protection thus afforded to every species of property, acquired in a course of ages, has given a spring or impetus to industry, which has certainly never been equalled in any other nation or empire in ancient or modern times. An æra has arrived in the affairs of the British Empire, discovering resources which have excited the wonder, the astonishment, and perhaps the envy of the civilized world. The accumulation of property, extensive beyond all credibility, and (during a war of unexampled expence) rapid in its growth beyond what the most sanguine mind could have conceived, renders it an interesting subject of inquiry with a view to discover the nature, extent, and component parts of the property of the British dominions, by which the nation has been placed in so elevated a situation in the scale of Europe. In contemplating the affairs of nations, it will be found that the same principles and rules will apply as those to which individuals resort on all emergencies, where, in extensive and complicated transactions, recourse is had to an accurate view of the resources in possession and to the means of rendering these resources as productive as possible. The resources of nations are derived from the productive labour of the people; and this labour is augmented or diminished according to forms of government, and the intelligence, ability, and zeal,-—or the want of these qualities in those to whom it is assigned to direct the affairs of states and empires. When the limited population and territory of the British islands are considered in relation to many other states and kingdoms in the world, it is fair to conclude that, the rapid strides which this nation has made in the course of the last and present century towards wealth and power may fairly be imputed to the form of its government, and the wisdom of its councils. It is by no means however to be inferred that the government is either in its nature absolutely perfect, or that the councils of this as well as other nations have not erred on many occasions. It is the lot of humanity to err. It is sufficient to say that it possesses advantages over all other governments, and that the purity of those intrusted with the highest offices of the state greatly exceeds those in similar situations in other countries. It is scarcely necessary to enter into details for the purpose of proving that the prosperity of the British nation has been rapid beyond all example, particularly within the last sixty years, notwithstanding the calamities of four successive wars of unexampled expence. Opposed until recently not only by a most formidable and inveterate enemy, but also through his machinations and the influence of his conquests by all the most powerful nations of Europe; yet with a population which cannot be estimated at more than between seventeen and eighteen millions, this country has stood the shock against a population of more than one hundred millions, while it has possessed itself of all the colonies and territories of the enemy which are not continental, besides annihilating, or at least rendering useless the once numerous and powerful navies of all the belligerent powers in Europe. It becomes an interesting enquiry, by what means these great and extraordinary H events have taken place. Who could have supposed that from sixty to seventy millions of money have been raised annually, exclusive of loans, for the expences of the state, in the last three years, with much greater ease than thirty millions could have been raised twenty years ago?-Who could have believed it possible that the surplus property of individuals could have furnished successive loans to government from year to year during the last twenty years to the amount of about £453,617,455 sterling*, and that still competitors exist eager to grasp at new loans?-Was it possible to conceive that the nation should be able to sustain a burthen now equal to £22,680,872 sterling additional interest on the national debt since the war of the French revolution first commenced, besides raising a fund during this period, and redeeming the land tax for the reduction of the national debt equal to about £156,636,746, and that under all this pressure the increase of individual opulence has been progressive and rapid, while the comforts of the middling and lower classes of the community, if they have not increased, have certainly not diminished? This paradox can only be solved by attributing it to the progressive and growing opulence of the country. Or in other words, that the surplus savings beyond the actual expenditure of the property, created by the labour of the people in each year, has been more than equal to the demands of government for the exigencies of the state. Notwithstanding these prominent features, exhibiting in strong colours the power, wealth, and resources of the empire, great uneasiness has been excited in consequence of the rapidity with which the national debt has been increased, under an apprehension that there is a point beyond which the resources of the country cannot be extended, and that a general bankruptcy must ensue. To discover how far these apprehensions are well or ill founded, it will be here necessary to do that which has never heretofore been done, namely to see what these resources are of what elements they consist, and to estimate their value upon the same principle as commercial men estimate their stock in trade,-in fine, to examine, as accurately as the nature of the case will permit, the value of that property which is pledged for the security of the national debt and the annual revenue arising from it. The attempt is bold, and the task is arduous. It is a ground that has not been heretofore at least systematically trod; while in the nature of things accuracy to a point in so extensive and complicated a range is impracticable. Yet if the labour which has been bestowed in the investigation of this extensive and important subject shall be found to approximate to the truth, or shall rather be within the truth (which is what has been throughout the aim of the Author), the advantages resulting from the important details in the interesting Table No. 2, annexed to this Chapter, will be incalculable, since under all the unexampled pressures arising from a long protracted war, generating an enormous public debt, these details will tend in an eminent degree to tranquillize the public mind; * Calculated to the 5th of January, 1813. producing a confidence in the power and the resources of the country beyond any other nation in the world, while at the same time they tend to cherish a well grounded hope that this great nation is equal to any exigency which may occur in consequence of the complicated and extensive wars which have so long afflicted the world. It is with nations as it is with individuals who are in the train of acquiring property. At first the progress is slow until a certain amount is obtained, after which, as wealth has a creative power under skilful and judicious management, the accumulation becomes more and more rapid, increasing often beyond a geometrical ratio, expanding in all directions, diffusing its influence wherever talents and industry prevail, and thereby extending the resources by which riches are obtained by communicating the power of acquiring it to thousands, who must have remained without wealth in countries less opulent. And hence it is, that in proportion to the population of Great Britain and Ireland and the Colonies there will be found a much greater number of individuals possessing wealth than in any other country in Europe:-and the result is, that there are more labourers possessing the means of acquiring riches and the power of communicating aid to others who have not yet acquired it. The insular situation of the British nation, affording great scope for commercial enterprise, the advantages derived from the salubrity of the climate, and in general from the fertility of the soil, joined to the benefits conferred by the richer and more valuable productions of the tropical colonies, combined with the immense and almost incalculable sources of industry which have burst upon the country by the improvements in manufactures and ingenious machinery,-all contribute in affording profitable employment for the capitals which are in the progress of accumulation; while this industry has acquired, and will continue to acquire, considerable aid from the funding system, which will hereafter be explained in its proper place. From these combined causes are to be traced the splendid view, which is now attempted to be given, of the public and private property of the British Empire at the present period. In forming the estimates which are exhibited in the Tables annexed, the ablest writers on this branch of political economy have been consulted, and copious notes have been introduced, calculated to elucidate as far as elucidation has been practicable, the grounds upon which the Author has proceeded. From the paucity however of materials much has been left to the exertion of the mind and to laborious and intricate calculations, where information could not be derived from books or public documents. As the estimates extend to national and individual property in every quarter of the world where the British flag flies; from such a mass of information brought within so narrow a compass, where every table may be considered as in itself a history, a confident hope is entertained that they cannot fail to prove highly interesting to every British subject, contemplating as he must do the power and resources of the empire with exultation; while to foreign nations it must prove a matter of wonder and astonishment, calculated to produce |