340 



starting, expressed to my new cocher my admiration of 

 his pretty young wife, and inquired her age. " One- 

 and-twenty." " And how long have you been married ? " 

 ^' Six years 5 and she was a widow when 1 married her!" 

 Fourteen and fifteen is a common age for the marriage 

 of females, and eighteen for males, on the shores of the 

 St Lawrence. These early marriages are the more likely 

 to accelerate the increase of the French Canadian popu- 

 lation, as the females retain their vigour, and continue 

 prolific, to a comparatively advanced period of life. 



Another cause is the healthiness of the climate. I 

 have already adverted to the general opinion upon this 

 subject, in regard even to localities such as in Great 

 Britain are usually unhealthy. But the statistical 

 returns for Lower Canada, in relation to births and 

 deaths, bears out this general opinion. Thus, the pro- 

 portion of births and deaths in the upper and lower 

 districts of the St Lawrence — those of Montreal and 

 Quebec — compared with Great Britain, are, according 

 to the best existing data, nearly as follows : — 



Thus, while the births in Canada add yearly 5 per 

 cent to the population, those of England add only 3 per 

 cent; and while the deaths lessen the population in 

 England by 2y per cent, those of Lower Canada lessen 

 it only by l/o. If we deduct these opposing numbers 

 from each other, as in the following table, we find the 

 yearly Increase in the two countries to be — 



Increase by births. 

 Decrease by deaths, 



Yearly increase, 



