TPIE EEGULATION OP NUMBEES 283 



obtained reports regarding the regulations in various European 

 countries. Of Denmark we hear that ' all those persons who are 

 in receipt of parish relief are not allowed to marry unless by 

 permission granted on special grounds by the Commissioners '.^ 

 In Wiirtemberg no subject of the state could marry until he 

 possessed ' the rights of a member of a community or a settled 

 non-freeman. But even such a one must prove to the magistrates 

 before his marriage that he possesses sufficient means of sub- 

 sistence. The want of such means of subsistence is considered as 

 existing, (a) in every one who is not primarily qualified in the 

 exercises of a liberal art or science, or for exercising on his own 

 account, commerce, a profession, agriculture or some other 

 business sufficient for the support of a family, or possesses sufficient 

 property for the independent support of a family ; and (b) in 

 every one who, at the time of the intended marriage, is the 

 subject of political or police investigation, for vagabondage, 

 prodigality, habitual idleness, notorious propensity to drinking, or 

 repeated fraud, repeated theft or systematic begging, or who 

 has been punished for the same, during the two years immediately 

 preceding, or who in the course of the three preceding years 

 (except in the case of misfortune not incurred by his own fault) 

 has received assistance from public funds for his own support, 

 or is in receipt of such at the time of the intended marriage.' ^ 



11. Somewhat similar conditions to those which led to postpone- 

 ment of marriage in England were operative elsewhere. Looking 

 at this period in general there is little doubt that the restrictions 

 upon increase were upon the whole effective. There were fluctua- 

 tions in the nearness of approach to the desirable number ; at 

 times for some reason too great an increase became noticeable. 

 Adjustment, however, soon followed. ' There was reason to 

 believe that towards the middle of the fifteenth century there was 

 a considerable increase in population, unaccompanied by any great 

 improvement in the means of production, and consequently a 

 relative over-population in many European countries. The 

 frequent complaints of poverty and lack of employment which 

 led eventually to stringent measures against foreign competitors, 



^ Report for Inquiry into the Administration and Practical Operation of the Poor 

 Laivs, Appendix F, p. 283. ^ Ibid., p. 520. For further information on this 



subject see the Handworterhiich der Staatswissenschujten, Article ' Eheschliessung '. 

 The Danish Poor Law Act of 1891 prohibits the marriage of the poor under certain 

 circumstances. 



