Showing the Proportionate Circulation of each Bank, as compared with their Authorised Circulation, in January and August in each Year.

TABLE III.

Showing the Proportion of Large and Small Notes Circulating in January and August in each of the following Years:

TABLE IV.

Proportion of Gold to Silver held by each Bank during the Years ending

December, 1847 to 1851.

Statement of Circulation and Stocks of Specie of Banks of Issue in Ireland, for the Four Weeks ending August 7th, 1852.

On the Census of the Islands of Bombay and Colaba, taken on the 1st of
May, 1849, by Captain Baynes, Superintendent of Police. By
COLONEL SYKES, F.R.S.

[Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Belfast,
2nd September, 1852.]

THE entire population of the islands of Bombay and Colaba, as numbered on the night of the 1st of May, 1849, amounts to no less than 566,119 persons; of these, it is stated that 354,090 are males, and only 212,029 females. The Hindoos amount to 296,931, or very considerably more than one-half of the entire population. The Mussulmans are more numerous than the Parsees, but the excess is less than 10,000, and each of these persuasions numbers in its ranks more than one-fifth of the inhabitants of the island. The entire number of Europeans, Indo-Europeans, native Christians and Jews, amount to more than 20,000. No distinction, however, appears to have been made between those born on the island or mainland, or elsewhere, nor between permanent residents and mere sojourners, nor is there (as on occasion of the census of 1833) a column to show the number of vagrants, nor any statement of the number of houses.

The population of the different divisions, as might have been expected, is shown to be exceedingly varied in extent and composition. The second, or the native town, to the cast of the Bhendy Bazaar, contains considerably more than two-fifths of the entire population of the island; next in density, comes the third division, comprising the west of the native town. The Fort and Colaba division stands third.

The most unusual feature in the returns is the immense excess of males over females. The former, as already noticed, are given at 354,090, the latter, at only 212,029, being a proportion of only 59 per cent. throughout the island. In Europe, it is well known, that the number of females is generally in excess of the males. This rule, it is true, does not appear to hold good in this country, for in all recent population returns of Zillahs, and in the mortuary returns of the island of Bombay, the males are considerably more numerous. But in no instance is the difference anything like so great as in the present; not even in those districts where the prejudice against a numeration of females may be regarded as strongest, or where the practice of female infanticide is most certainly known to prevail.*

* Amongst the Rajpoot tribes of Kattywar and elsewhere in India, amongst Rajpoots, female infancicide did, at one time, prevail to a very great extent. The cause of this was the pride of Rajpoot families, who, unhappily, considered themselves degraded by having a daughter arrived at puberty unmarried; but the ostentatious expense with which custom rendered it imperative to celebrate a marriage, necessarily restricted the number of these celebrations, and to obviate the chances of the future stigma of having an unmarried daughter, female infants were made away with shortly after birth. The Government, to operate upon the minds of parents, has benevolently established a marriage portion-fund, so that absolute want of means shall not be a motive for the commission of infanticide; and it is believed that the shocking practice is very considerably diminished. Moreover, the Government is ceaseless in its efforts, through the medium of its political agents in Rajpoot states, to induce the chiefs to make the practice criminal, and many of the chiefs of Kattywar, Cutch, and Rajpootan, have entered into treaties with the British Government to this end. In Bombay it is not suspected that infanticide is practised.

There are, indeed, some reasons for a partial excess of males in Bombay above the proportion of the surrounding territory, especially in the month of May, before the setting in of the rains. The seamen in Bombay harbour are mostly without wives, and the workmen in the dockyards, factories, &c., do not generally bring their families with them. The class of labourers on the public works will also contain a proportionately larger number of males than females, though there will be among them a considerable sprinkling of the latter; among the troops and camp followers too, the women will be much fewer than among an equal number of villagers, and a large proportion of male children are assembled here to attend the schools and colleges. But after making every allowance of this kind, the relative proportion, or rather disproportion of the sexes in these returns, will still appear of questionable accuracy.

The anomaly can scarcely be ascribed to any caste prejudices on the subject of females, as hitherto commonly supposed, for the order of deficiency from the caste in which the proportion of females is lowest, to that in which it is highest, is the following:-1, Seedees; 2, Europeans; 3, Hindoos; 4, native Christians; 5, Mussulmans; 6, Indo-Europeans; 7, Jains and Boodhists; 8, other castes; 9, Jews; 10, Parsees. Among the Hindoos, the proportion of females is only about 50 per cent. Among the Mussulmans, 60 per cent., and among the Parsees, about 88 per cent.

Nor is the difference to be attributed to the peculiar kind of population in any locality. For although the average of the sexes in the several divisions does vary considerably, yet in none does it rise to 75 per cent., and it is rather higher than lower in the densely peopled portions of the native town, where the work-people chiefly reside.*

In regard to ages, Captain Bayne's statements do not afford much valuable information, nor the means of deducing it. He has remarked on this head, “I found, that the generality of the ages given, are so utterly unworthy of trust, that I have thought it better to confine myself to three distinct periods; viz., from birth to 13 years, from 14 to 50 as adults, and above 50 as aged. Though this is not as minute as I could have wished, yet it has the advantage of being correct." In this passage, it is assumed that Captain Baynes has the means of testing the returns of the census, by comparison with other and more accurate sources of information. As, however, we do not learn what these sources are, and as there is no careful register of births on the island, we can hardly suppose that the value of the returns will have been much increased by any subsequent alterations.

Captain Baynes has given only three divisions of ages, children, adults, and aged. Dr. Leith, in his Mortuary returns, has been able to divide the periods of life much more minutely his first four periods having reference to the first and second dentition; his fifth to puberty; his sixth extending to twenty years, and the remainder progressing by decennial periods up to eighty, beyond which he considers that no certain data can be expected. In the present case, of course

*The disproportion of the sexes cannot be attributed to female infanticide in Bombay, because, amongst the population, there are few of the Rajpoot castes, amongst which this atrocity is chiefly perpetrated.

such a complicated subdivision was not required. It might have been well, however, to have retained the division from 13, or rather 14, to 20 as youths, and also to have distinguished those between 50, or rather 51, and 80 from those above the latter age. In this way, the returns of any subsequent censuses will be more valuable, especially for medical purposes. They will also be more instructive to the superintendent of police himself, as the age of puberty is so low in this country, that it does not represent the age at which a man enters upon active occupations, whether for good or for evil.

In the matter of castes, the present returns are not satisfactory. The great divisions of the population have indeed been given, but there is no attempt to distinguish the subdivisions, and even incongruous religions are classed together, such as Jain, Lingaet, and Boodhist, the Lingaet alone belonging to the Hindoo system. In explana tion of this omission, Captain Baynes has remarked, that from knowing the different castes, he had hoped to be able to classify them into trades, but that the people in Bombay have broken through the prejudices, so strictly adhered to elsewhere, of children following the occupation of their parents, and he was therefore compelled, after great delay and difficulty, to give up the attempt. But if all the members of one caste no longer follow the same trade in Bombay, it would still be very interesting to know their relative numbers, and to ascertain, by degrees, their respective occupations. This, indeed, would be nothing else than to trace the progress of a striking and fundamental change in the constitution of the native society of the place. It is probable, however, that Captain Baynes has over estimated the present extent of this reformation or revolution, and the difficulty of obtaining sufficient information in regard to professions.

Among the statements, is one drawn up from the data furnished by Captain Baynes, showing the relative numbers of young, adult, and aged persons in each of the different persuasions. It would appear from this, that population (as was to be expected) is progressing, in the several great classes, in a ratio generally proportionate to the abundance of feinales in each.* Thus the per-centage of youths

* Some of the constituents of the population are very peculiar, and have a high historical interest. The Parsees, for instance, numbering 114,698, the most industrious, enterprising, educated, intelligent, and wealthy of the inhabitants, are the descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers of Persia, who expatriated themselves at the period of the spread of Mahomedanism, and are believed to have landed in India, near to Bulsar, in the northern Konkun. They have preserved, to this day, the physical characteristics, complexion, religion, and usages, of their forefathers, and, strange to say, notwithstanding the spread of European knowledge amongst them, and the great proficiency of very many in European literature, science, and art, they continue the superstitious usages of exposing their dead on the tops of towers to be devoured by the fowls of the air, of worshipping fire, and of practising their worship with puerile and absurd ceremonials.

The Jews of Bombay, also, are not less objects of historic interest than the Parsees; they amount to 1,132, and they and their more numerous co-religionists on the Malabar coast, are probably descended from the ten tribes of the first captivity, and escaped from the cruel oppressions of their Assyrian masters to India. With rare exceptions, they are as black as the natives of the country, but have somewhat of the Jewish countenance. They possess parts of the Bible, and read it in Hebrew. They enlist in the regular native regiments, and many of them are acquainted with reading,