Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



68i 



took it to his "sister at Lofstad, and there it has 

 I'emained until the present time. The King was 

 less prudent. He left a writing in a drawer 

 which revealed the relations of Barnave and his 

 friends with the Court. Barnave was arrested 

 at Grenoble, and after a year in prison was 

 brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and 

 condemned to death. Five weeks previously 

 Marie Antoinette, too, had mounted the scaffold. 

 The letters which have now been published will 

 prove, the writer thinks, how wrong is the 

 prevaihng opinion that the Queen's relations 

 with the Constitutional Party were a comedy 

 played to conceal the intrigues of the Court 

 with the emigres. Such an opinion can hardly 

 be maintained after the publication of this corre- 

 spondence, so honourable to the memory of the 

 unfortunate Queen. 



FRANCE'S NATIONAL PERIL. 



The Danger of Depopulation. 



In La Revue of November ist Dr. Lowenthal, 

 a member of the Parliamentary Depopulation 

 Commission, has a long article on the Depopula- 

 tion question. 



I9IO AND 191 I compared. 



The oflTicial paper referred to shows a deplor- 

 able state of things, writes Dr. Lowenthal. The 

 year 191 1 compared with 1910 is characterised 

 by the following demographic phenomena : — 



Natality has decreased by i per 1,000 (iS'y per 1,000 

 in place of ig'?). 



The number of births has been reduced by 32,244 

 (742,114 in place of 774)3S8)- 



The number of deaths has been increased by 73,206 

 (776,983 in place of 703,777), the death-rate being i9'6 

 instead of i7'9 per 1,000. 



The exces of deaths over births is 34,869 (in place of 

 an excess of births over deaths of 70,500). 



France's lower birth-rate — 



Speaking of natality in particular, the im- 

 portant fact to note is that the decline is general 

 among all classes, and that it is due to the 

 " parental prudence " so ardently preached in 

 the nineteenth century, and not, says Dr. 

 Lowenthal, to any degeneracy of the race. The 

 natality among foreign immigrants in France is 

 equally low, so that the remedy for French 

 depopulation is scarcely to be found in foreign 

 immigration. In an interesting table the number 

 of births per 1,000 inhabitants in France and in 

 other countries is set out, Hungary heading the 

 list with a natality of 35 per 1,000, Austria 

 following with 33, Italy 32*9, Germany 29'8, the 

 United Kingdom 24'7, and France i8y. This 

 rate for France is stated to be the lowest rate 

 registered in any country since the creation of 

 demographic statistics. 



AND INCREASED MORTALITY. 



The writer then sets himself to the task of dis- 

 covering whether there exists any connection 

 between depopulation and religion and politics, 

 and concludes that no such connection exists. 

 He makes no mention of possible social and 

 economic causes. The really serious factor in 

 France is that while natality has declined, mor- 

 tality has increased at a tremendous pace, and 

 this increase is more general than the decrease in 

 the birth-rate. France is, indeed, one of the 

 countries where people die the most and pro- 

 create the least. The mortality of children under 

 one year is 175 per 1,000; from i to 4 it is 19 

 per 1,000, and from 10 to 19 only 4 per 1,000. 

 The infant population for one year in France 

 averages 675,000, and the number of deaths of 

 infants equals in number the deaths of all per- 

 sons between i and 19, the different groups of 

 the latter representing at least 20,000,000 indi- 

 viduals. 



COMPARISON WITH OTHER NATIONS. 



The mortality of France, i9'6 per 1,000, is low 

 compared with other countries, but it is high 

 when taken into account with her natality. The 

 following table shows the position of countries 

 with a natality ranging from 33 to 45 per 

 1,000 : — 



Natality. Mortality. 



Russia (igos) 44'8 3i'7 



Bulgaria (1909) 42'o 23"5 



Roumania (igio) 4^'2 24'8 



Servia (1910) 3Q'o 29*3 



Austria-Hungary (1910) 33'S 22'8 



Spain (1910) 33'i 23"8 



The countries with a natality below 33 per 

 1,000 show a lower mortality than that of 

 France. The only exception is Italy, whose rate 

 of mortality is the same as that of France. In 

 New Zealand the natality is given as 26'2 and 

 the mortality as 9*7. 



THE ONLY RATIONAL REMEDY. 



In 1882, when Professor Richet uttered a note 

 of warning about the growing decline of the 

 birth-rate, he quite overlooked the danger of the 

 exorbitant death-rate. France has always 

 squandered her human capital, says Dr. Lowen- 

 thal. To fight depopulation she must lower her 

 .excessive mortality to that which other countries 

 less favoured bv Nature have attained. To in- 

 crease her natality is a chimera scarcely realis- 

 able, since all other nations are experiencing a 

 lowering of the rate, some In higher proportion 

 than that of France. No country has done so 

 little to fight against the ravages of disease. 

 Her salvation lies in an energetic and Incessant 

 fight agnlnst avoidable disease and premature 

 death, and her remedy against the national peril 

 of depopulation is to be found in a rational and 

 effective organisation of public hygiene. 



