LAW OF POPULATION ILLUSTRATED 185 



tion, which promised to their industry a more abundant 

 store of material well-being than they could ever expect 

 to find at home. Then in that season of distress began 

 the great efflux from Scandinavia to the United States 

 of America, which has been the distinguishing character- 

 istic of the movement of population in Sweden and 

 Norway up to the present day. This efflux was 

 greatly accelerated by the incidence in 1878 of 

 another commercial crisis, the effect of which was more 

 widespread than the former, and lasted over a longer 

 period, as may be seen from the figures for the decade 

 188493, when the numbers who emigrated greatly 

 exceeded the numbers who were added to the popula- 

 tion. The native instinct of the race made their self- 

 expatriation to take possession of a new home less painful 

 than it would have been to peoples not possessed of 

 their inherited spirit of adventure, and has maintained 

 the emigration long after it ceased to be impelled by 

 distress and became a purely voluntary movement. 



The next countries whose vital statistics I tabulate 

 are Prussia, the Netherlands, and Belgium, which show 

 as a common characteristic a decline in the birth-rate 

 exceedingly small compared with the decline in the 

 death-rate a result in each case mainly due to the 

 expansion of the labour market, and in a comparatively 

 small degree to the effect of emigration. 



As Prussia had its boundaries largely extended in 

 the decade 186473, I am unable to furnish the 

 natural and actual increases of the kingdom till the 

 following decade. 



