DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 251 



lightly upon a people who have all but repudiated religion. The ad- 

 versaries of religion, however, place the responsibility for the low birth 

 rate at the door of Catholicism which has not only withdrawn from 

 married life a large portion of the population both male and female, 

 but does not encourage marriage among the laity. The latter charge 

 the catholics emphatically deny, and as evidence that Catholicism is not 

 responsible they point to Brittany, Finistere and other strongly catho- 

 lic provinces where the birth-rate is the highest in France. If the birth- 

 rate for all France, says M. Leroy-Beaulieu had been since 1871 equal 

 to that of Finistere, France would have to-day 53,000,000 inhabitants 

 instead of only 39,000,000. Moreover, the catholics point out that in 

 Quebec, a strongly French catholic province, the birth-rate is more 

 than twice as high as that of France, and that Belgium with its compar- 

 atively high birth-rate is a country where Catholicism is strongly in- 

 trenched. It is sometimes complained that one cause of the evil is to 

 be found in the paucity of marriages, but the statistics show that there 

 has been a steady increase in the number for many years (e. g., from 

 269,332 in 1890 to 307,788 in 1911, and this notwithstanding the fact 

 that there was little increase of population during this period), yet the 

 birth-rate has declined. It seems clear that it is not more marriages 

 that France needs, but more productive marriages; it is infecundity 

 that is responsible for the diminishing population and not lack of mari- 

 tal unions. 



Some students of the question, like M. Henri Joly, see in the grant- 

 ing of divorces, the number of which steadily increases every year, one 

 of the secondary causes; but this may be doubted. On the contrary, it 

 might be argued that divorce conduces to the increase of the birth-rate 

 by permitting the dissolution of sterile unions and the contracting of 

 others. Moreover, there was no divorce law in France before 1884, yet 

 the population had long since ceased to increase except in trifling pro- 

 portions. Finally, divorce is practised in other countries where the 

 birth-rate is high ; if it contributes to the diminution of the population 

 in France, why does it not have the same effect elsewhere? The pro- 

 hibition of the judicial determination of paternity in the case of illegi- 

 mate children has long been regarded as a secondary cause of the low 

 birth-rate, since it encourages illicit cohabitation in the place of law- 

 ful marriages. This legal incentive to " free unions " has been removed, 

 however, during the past year by the enactment of a law empowering 

 the courts to ascertain and determine the father of an illegitimate 

 child which he refuses to recognize. The enactment of this law, says 

 the Temps, was a great victory in the interests of morals and humanity 

 and one which required fifty years to achieve. 



The spirit of luxury and ease and the high state of wealth are also 

 held responsible for the disinclination among the French to rear chil- 

 dren. The census statistics show that in the richest regions of France, 



