about 400. About
Benares and Patna the average is about double these figures. I was looking
at the 'Year-Book' in your library, and I saw that the average in the
States, including Alaska, is about 18 to the square mile; but the nine
States in the north-east have 107.

"The little bit of a State of Rhode Island leads in the density of its
population, with 318, while Massachusetts comes next with 278. New Jersey
has 193, Connecticut, 154; the big States of New York and Pennsylvania have
respectively 126 and 117. In the United Kingdom the average in England is
541; in Scotland, 135; in Wales, 206; and in Ireland, 144. The density of
India, therefore, is quite respectable by comparison.

"By the census of 1891, India has seventy-five towns with over 50,000
inhabitants, and twenty-eight with over 100,000; but unlike three cities of
the States, it has not one with over a million, though Calcutta and Bombay
are likely to reach that distinction in another decade. You have not a
monopoly of the fast-growing cities in the States."

"We have found out that Berlin has increased faster than Chicago," said
Uncle Moses with a chuckle; "and Glasgow has got ahead of Liverpool."

"Quite true, Mr. Scarburn; but the States have not all the fast-growing
cities of the world, wonderful as the increase has been in some of them.
Europe, Asia, and Australia are alive. The nearest approaches to a million
in India are Calcutta, 861,764, and Bombay, 821,764; but I dare say you are
all quite tired of statistics by this time."

"Not at all, Lord Tremlyn; as you present them they are quite interesting."
said Mrs. Belgrave.

"Thank you, madam," replied the speaker, bowing low, with his hand on his
heart. "Now I am going to speak of the people as other than mere numbers;
and if I wished to entangle you inextricably, I should go back about 4,000
years, and tell you about the people down to the present time. I spare you
the infliction in full. Four groups of languages are spoken among the
natives, and from these the original races that spoke them are traced out.

"I mention one as a specimen, the Kolarian language, spoken by those who
first settled in the hilly regions of the central part. The others are the
Aryan, Dravidian, and Tibeto-Burman, all of which you will find in
'Chambers's' in your library.

"The word Hindu is generally used in a very broad sense to cover all the
native population of Hindustan or India; but it is really applicable to