ABSTRACT
The population of India, with British Burma, amounted in 1881 to 256 millions, or, as already mentioned, more than double the number which Gibbon estimated for the Roman Empire in the height of its power. But the English Government has respected the possessions of native chiefs, and onethird of the country still remains in the hands of its hereditary rulers. Their subjects make about one-fifth of the whole Indian people. That Government, as Suzerain in India, does not allow its feudatories to make war upon each other, or to have any relations with foreign States. It interferes when any chief misgoverns his people; rebukes, and if needful removes, the oppressor; protects the weak; and firmly imposes peace upon all. The general tendency of the population in Bengal is south and east to the newly-formed delta, and north-east to the thinly-peopled valleys of Assam.
