536 The Population Question. pVlAY, 



of France, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United 

 States, &c. ; but as before, we content ourselves with one example out 

 of a multitude, merely adding that they all arrive with surprising 

 agreement at the same conclusion. 



Sixth. Having shewn that prolificness diminishes as the population 

 numerically advances, the next curious and important point to be proved 

 is, that prolificness increases with any considerable diminution of popu- 

 lation. This is the most extraordinary aspect the whole inquiry assumes: 

 and the means by which it is shewn exhibit, perhaps, more strongly 

 than any other part of the work, the great powers of investigation, 

 and the unwearying industry of the author. It naturally divides 

 itself into those great mutalities that have occasionally visited the earth 

 in the form of epidemics, and those fluctuating mortalities to which all 

 great communities are subjected. In both cases the principle is most 

 triumphantly proved. It might be expected that the test would fail in 

 some of its applications ; but such is the regularity, consistency, and 

 certainty of this law of our being, that the deeper we enter into the 

 inquiry, the more satisfactory do the evidences become, and the more 

 impregnable a position do the whole body of proofs take, both relatively 

 and in the abstract. As we can only afford to shadow forth the sums- 

 total of Mr. Sadler's tables, referring to the original for the particulars, 

 we must deny ourselves the pleasure of quoting his very curious tabular 

 view of the history of fecundity throughout the disastrous era of the 

 plague in London, and a few years following it. Here is an abstract of 

 it, however, shewing the proofs, divided into sections of ten years. 



The reasoning founded on these data is full of interest, and must have 

 the effect of convincing every candid mind that the intricacies through 

 which the subject is necessarily pursued, are of a nature to entitle that 

 man who has succeeded in threading them, at all events to the respect of 

 his adversaries, if their political prejudices exclude him from their assent 

 and co-operation. It will be perceived that, although in the table now 

 before us the proportions are not accurate, yet the great result suffici- 

 ently vindicates the operation of nature. Perhaps the arbitrary division 

 of the period into portions of ten years each is not just, since the true 

 working of the principle can best be seen in the progressive development 

 year after year, of the relative mortality and procreation; but even in these 

 totals we find that the period of the greatest mortality was distinguished 

 by the greatest fruitfulness, and that the number of conceptions never 

 sinks below, but always rises above that standard : so that even the 

 deviations favour the principle. When we consider the immediate effect 

 of a depopulating epidemic, it might be enough for our purpose to prove 



