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But if the annual efflux continued at the same 

 amount, say, for some decades, then the high marriage- 

 rate and the high birth-rate would also continue, and 

 have the effect of maintaining the population at its 

 normal numbers. 



Thus the effect of a continued efflux would be the 

 maintenance of the normal population by the pro- 

 duction annually of a number of births equal to the 

 number of individuals who annually left the country. 



Thus emigration, however large in amount, does not 

 of itself tend to diminish the population of any 

 community. The only cause of depopulation is a 

 declining labour market. This has been the case in 

 Ireland. Even the vast emigration of the last thirty 

 years would not have had the effect of diminishing 

 its population if the labour market of Ireland had 

 remained in statu quo ante ; and if the labour market 

 had all the time been expanding, the emigration 

 would not have prevented a commensurate growth of 

 population. 



The sole effect of the emigration would have been 

 immensely to increase the number of marriages, until 

 the marriage-rate rose to as great a height as, or even 

 to a greater height than it attained in the closing 

 decades of the eighteenth century. 



The labour market will always insist on being 

 fully supplied with the necessary labour whatever 

 happens, and by its own action can and does effect 

 this result. 



If by an unexpected development of industry there is 



