THE LAW OF POPULATION 153 



in its turn to be filled, and its new occupant is placed for 

 the first time in a position that enables him to marry. 



As a general rule, new-comers in the labour market 

 begin by filling the lowest posts of employment, both 

 when old posts have been rendered vacant by death, 

 and when new posts are created as industrial or 

 commercial enterprise is extended. 



The majority of young men marry as soon as they 

 are in a position which enables them to do so. But it 

 generally happens that their marriage is deferred for 

 some time after they enter upon the posts which 

 confer upon them the power to marry, owing to the 

 necessity of saving up for house furniture and wedding 

 expenses. The first three years after they enter upon 

 such a post are those which witness the greater number 

 of their marriages. This fact is revealed to the 

 statistical expert by the marriage returns of the 

 years which follow the breaking out of a devastating 

 pestilence or the close of a sanguinary war. 



In the year 1866 the mortality of Austria was 

 raised to a great height by a visitation of cholera and 

 by war with Prussia. 



From an annual average of 295 deaths per 10,000 

 of population in the preceding decade, the mortality in 

 the above year rose to 409 per 10,000. The full tale 

 of deaths above the normal amount was 230,000. 

 Owing to the large number of posts of employment 

 emptied by the pestilence and the war, and to their 

 being straightway filled up by young men, the marriages 

 in the following four years rose from an annual 



