THE DEPOPULATION OF FRANCE. 673 



voice, or, the contrary, laws facilitating divorce, would augment 

 natality. !N^obody has ever given a proof, or the beginning of a 

 proof, in support of these fancies. 



Would socialistic reforms leading to a diminution of the share of 

 capital, and a corresponding increase of the share of labor, have any 

 effect upon natality? I can not pronounce upon this question, be- 

 cause I have not sufficient data; nevertheless, the remuneration of 

 capital has not ceased to diminish since the beginning of the cen- 

 tury — we may even estimate that it has diminished nearly one half, 

 for the nominal interest on money has fallen from five to three f)er 

 cent. This has not prevented natality from decreasing in our 

 country. "Would it be augmented if capital should come to have 

 no remuneration at all? I have not examined this difficult and 

 very hypothetical question, for, if such a thing should happen, it 

 could be only in an extremely remote future. But the supreme 

 struggle of which our country has always to think will have taken 

 place long before that. 



The revival of religious ideas, if it should come about, might 

 have some effect on natality. Demographic studies have shown how 

 great an influence religion has on habits and on phenomena of 

 moral pathology (on the frequency of suicides, for example), and 

 prove that men put the prescriptions of their religion into practice 

 more than one would believe. All religions direct man, more or 

 less imperatively, to have as numerous a posterity as possible. 

 There may therefore exist a relation between natality and the de- 

 gree of sincerity of religious convictions. But it is manifest that, 

 whatever we may do, we can not change our age nor prevent its 

 growing more and more incredulous. 



II. Summary Examtnation of Measuees having in Yiew the 

 Incejease of the !N'umber of Marriages. — ^]!Sruptiality is nearly the 

 same in France as it has been. It has, however, diminished during 

 the last twenty years, falling gradually from eight marriages to 

 seven marriages a year per thousand inhabitants. For seven years 

 past it has gained a little, and is now 7.6 — a fairly satisfactory rate. 

 It is not here that the saddle galls us. 



It has been proposed, as a measure for increasing the number of 

 marriages, to simplify the required formulas. I believe that these 

 formulas are indeed too long, too many, and too expensive. The 

 countries which have been so foolish as to copy our civil code have 

 taken pains to strike out this chapter, and they have done well. 

 But he is greatly mistaken who believes that the number of mar- 

 riages could be perceptibly increased by suppressing unpleasant 

 formulas. When one wants to marry, he generally does so in spite 

 of the obstacles which maladroit legislation may have piled up. In 



TOL. LV. — 47 



