The British Empire
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The Empire is divisible into three portions: (1) the United Kingdom; (2) colonies in the proper sense of the word—plantations—in congenial climates, where the English race can take root and multiply indefinitely until the unpeopled land is occupied, as in North America, the Cape, Australia, or New Zealand; and (3) Ceylon and India, which are inhabited largely by Aryan or Semitic stocks that have given abundant evidence of courage, culture, skill, and industry. The military and naval stations, the factories for commerce, as they were first called, and the fertile tropical islands and settlements of the "West Indies and Central America, which have been cultivated by English planters, employing black and Creole labour, might be thrown into a class apart; but as it is difficult to draw the line, or to foresee their future, they may for the present be classed with the colonies, to which, by Blackstone's definition, they belong. The Empire possesses 7,769,449 square miles of territory: the United Kingdom Area. 121,608 square miles, the colonies 6,685,021, India and Ceylon 962,820 square miles. There are 30 persons to a square mile in the Empire; 260 in the United Kingdom; 201 in India; 1.41 in the colonies. While there are 14 acres to a household in the United Kingdom, and 17 acres in India, there are 2,534 acres to a household in the colonies. The colonies differ to an indefinable extent in capacity as fields of labour and sources of produce. Thousands of miles of water, of intractable moors, of marshes, of icebound earth, of barren mountains, are intermingled with fat pastures and fertile soil, widely distributed, nearly equivalent in their expanse to a tract of 4,000 miles in length and nearly 2,000 miles in breadth. England, the most highly cultivated centre of the Empire, has only three fourths of its area under crops of any kind, and can so deal with little more profitably. But after every reduction has been made for waste in the colonies, there will remain open to enterprise a vast extent of pasture and of arable land, besides inexhaustible stores of mineral wealth. The young plantations will one day be mighty forests, shedding their leaves and seeds over the ages to come. The population of the Empire, nearly all enumerated, is 234,762,593, of whom 31,629,299 inhabit the United Kingdom, 9,420,937 inhabit the colonies, and 193,712,357 inhabit Ceylon and India. The human unit differs as much as the unit of land; but it is always human. In the old language of statistics, the Queen's sceptre extends over two hundred and thirty-four million subjects; her Government has charge of two hundred and thirty-four million souls. THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
—AREA, INHABITED HOUSES, and POPULATION. THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
—DENSITY of HOUSES and POPULATION.THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
The British Empire
Area
Density of population
—
Area.
Inhabited
Houses.Population.
In Square
Miles.In Square
Kilometres.
BRITISH EMPIRE
7,769,449
20,122,049
44,142,651?
234,762,593
United Kingdom
(including Islands in British Sea
121,608
314,952
5,655,178
31,629,299*
India
and Ceylon
962,820
2,493,601
36,798,883?
193,712,357
Other Colonies, Possessions, and Dependencies
6,685,021
17,313,496
1,688,590
9,420,937
United Kingdom:—
ENGLAND and WALES
58,311
151,019
4,259,117
22,712,266
SCOTLAND
30,463
78,896
412,185
3,360,018
IRELAND
32,531
84,252
959,894
5,412,377
ISLANDS in BRITISH SEAS
303
785
23,982
144,638
Colonies, Possessions, and Dependencies:—
In EUROPE
122
316
33,699?
176,213
In NORTH AMERICA
3,376,925
8,745,879
627,895?
3,789,670
In WEST INDIES and CENTRAL AMERICA
26,609
68,914
217,879?
1,088,596
In SOUTH AMERICA
82,500
213,666
39,435?
194,294
In AFRICA
236,860
613,442
327,054?
1,813,450
In ASIA:—
India
938,366
2,430,268
36,341,914?
191,307,070
Ceylon
24,454
63,333
456,969?
2,405,287
Straits and other Settlements
1,283
3,323
56,670?
433,119
In AUSTRALASIA
2,960,722
7,667,956
385,958?
1,925,595
*
The Army, &c. Abroad
belonging to the United Kingdom are here assumed to be included with the Population of the Colonies and Possessions in which they were located at the time of the Enumeration.
—
Houses.
Population.
Number
of
Acres
to a
House.Number
of
Houses
to a
Square
Mile.Number
of
Houses to
a Square
Kilometre.Number
of
Hectares
to a
House.Number
of
Acres
to a
Person.Number
of
Persons
to a
Square
Mile.Number
of
Persons
to a
Square
Kilometre.Number
of
Hectures
to a
Person.
BRITISH EMPIRE
112.64
5.68
2.19
45.58
21.18
30.22
11.67
8.57
United Kingdom
(including Islands in British Sea
13.76
46.50
17.96
5.57
2.46
260.09
100.43
1.00
India
and Ceylon
16.75
38.22
14.76
6.78
3.18
201.19
77.68
1.29
Other Colonies, Possessions, and Dependencies
2533.72
0.25
0.10
1025.32
454.14
1.41
0.54
183.78
United Kingdom:—
ENGLAND and WALES
8.76
73.04
28.2
3.54
1.64
389.50
150.39
0.66
SCOTLAND
47.3
13.53
5.22
19.14
5.80
110.30
42.59
2.35
IRELAND
21.69
29.51
11.39
8.78
3.85
166.38
64.24
1.56
ISLANDS in BRITISH SEAS
8.07
79.15
30.55
3.27
1.34
477.35
184.25
0.54
Colonies, Possessions, and Dependencies:—
In EUROPE
2.32
276.22
106.64
0.94
0.44
1444.37
557.64
0.18
In NORTH AMERICA
344.03
0.19
0.07
1392.89
570.30
1.12
0.43
230.78
In WEST INDIES and CENTRAL AMERICA
78.16
8.19
3.16
31.63
15.64
40.91
15.80
6.33
In SOUTH AMERICA
1338.91
0.48
0.18
541.82
271.75
2.36
0.91
109.97
In AFRICA
463.50
1.8
0.53
187.57
83.59
7.66
2.96
33.83
In ASIA:—
India
16.536
38.73
14.95
6.69
3.14
203.87
78.72
1.27
Ceylon
34.25
18.69
7.22
13.86
6.51
98.36
37.98
2.63
Straits and other Settlements
14.49
44.17
17.05
5.86
1.90
337.58
130.34
0.77
In AUSTRALASIA
4909.50
0.13
0.05
1986.73
984.04
0.65
0.25
398.21