482 LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. 



to have a very high rate of multiplication. Barrow writes : 

 "They are said to be exceedingly prolific; that twins are 

 almost as frequent as single births,- and that it is no un- 

 common thing for a woman to have three at a time." Pro- 

 bably both these statements are in excess of the truth ; but 

 there is room for large discounts without destroying the 

 extreme difference. A third instance is that of the 



French Canadians. "Nous sommes terribles pour les enfants !" 

 observed one of them to Prof. Johnston ; who tells us that 

 the man who said this " was one of fourteen children was 

 himself the father of fourteen, and assured me that from 

 eight to sixteen was the usual number of the farmers'* 

 families. He even named one or two women who had 

 brought their husbands five-and-twenty, and threatened ' le 

 vingt-sixikme pour le pretre.' " From these large families, 

 joined with the early marriages and low rate of mortality, it 

 results that, by natural increase, " there are added to the 

 French- Canadian population of Lower Canada four persons 

 for every one that is added to the population of England." 

 Now these French- Canadians are described by Prof. Johnston 

 as home-loving, contented, unenterprising; and as living in 

 a region where " land and subsistence are easily obtained." 

 Yery moderate industry brings to them liberal supplies of 

 necessaries ; and they pass a considerable portion of the year 

 in idleness. Hence the cost of Individ uation being much 

 reduced, the rate of Genesis is much increased. That this 

 uncommon fertility is not due to any direct influence of the 

 locality, is implied by the fact that along with the " restless, 

 discontented, striving, burning energy of their Saxon neigh- 

 bours " no such rate of multiplication is observed ; while 

 further south, where the physical circumstances are more 

 favourable if anything, the Anglo-Saxons, leading lives of 

 excessive activity, have a fertility below the average. And 

 that the peculiarity is not a direct effect of race, is proved by 

 the fact that in Europe, the rural French are certainly not 

 more prolific than the rural English. 



