MARRIAGE. 



unless she returns and is reconciled. An 

 action of trespass lies for taking away a 

 wife, with the goods of her husband, and 

 also for criminal conversation with the 

 wife of any one. 



If a man ill-use and turn his wife away, 

 she has credit for necessaries wherever 

 she goes, and he is obliged to pay her 

 debts ; but it is otherwise, if she elopes 

 or commits adultery. A married woman 

 cannot be sued for her own debts, al- 

 though she has a separate maintenance. 



Divorces are of two kinds, absolute, 

 and from bed and hoard. The former can 

 only be by act of Parliament, unless it is 

 for some original defect in the marriage ; 

 the latter is allowed on account of ill- 

 treatment, &c. and then the wife has ali- 

 mony or maintenance allowed her. 



MAIUIIAGE, in political economy. The 

 reader may find many curious calculations 

 and remarks relating to this subject in 

 Dr. Price's " Observations on Reversion- 

 ary Payments." From a variety of facts, 

 it appears, that marriages, one with an- 

 other, do each produce about four births, 

 both in England and other parts of Eu- 

 rope. Dr. Price observes, that the births 

 at Paris are above four times the wed- 

 dings ; and therefore it may seem, that in 

 the most healthy country situations, every 

 wedding produces above four children ; 

 and though this be the case in Paris, for 

 reasons which he has given, he has ob- 

 served nothing like it in any other great 

 town. He adds, that from comparing the 

 births and weddings in countries and 

 towns where registers of them have been 

 kept, it appears, that in the former, mar- 

 riages one with another seldom produce 

 less than four children each ; generally 

 between four and five, and sometimes 

 above five ; but in towns seldom above 

 four, generally between three and four, 

 and sometimes under three. It is neces- 

 sary to be observed here, that though the 

 proportion of annual births to weddings 

 has been considered as giving the true 

 number of children derived from each 

 marriage, taking all Carriages one with 

 another: yet this is only true, when, for 

 many years, the births" and burials have 

 kept nearly equal. Where there is an 

 excess of the births, occasioning an in- 

 crease, the proportion of annual births to 

 weddings must be less than the propor- 

 tion of children derived from each mar- 

 riage ; and the contrary must take place, 

 where there is a decrease : and by Mr. 

 King's computation, about one in a hun- 

 dred and four persons marry ; the num- 

 ber of people in England being estimated 

 tit five millions and a half, whereof about 

 VOL. IV. 



forty-one thousand annually marry. In 

 the district of V aud, in Switzerland, the 

 married are very nearly a third part of 

 the inhabitants. Major Graunt and Mr. 

 King disagree in the proportions between 

 males and females, the latter making ten 

 males to thirteen females in London ; in 

 other cities and towns, and in the villages 

 and hamlets, one hundred males to nine- 

 ty-nine females ; but Major Graunt, both 

 from the London and country bills, com- 

 putes that there are in England fourteen 

 males to thirteen females ; whence lie 

 justly infers, that the Christian religion, 

 prohibiting polygamy, is more agreeable 

 to the law of nature than Mahometanism, 

 and others that allow it. This proportion 

 of males to females Mr. Derham thinks 

 pretty just, being agreeable to what he 

 had observed himself. In the hundred 

 years, for instance, of his own parish re- 

 gister of Upminster, though the burials of 

 males and females were nearly equal, be- 

 ing 633 males, and 623 females, in all that 

 time ; yet there were baptized 709 males, 

 and but 675 females, which is thirteen fe- 

 males to 13.7 males. From a 'register 

 kept at Northampton for 28 years, from 

 1741 to 1770, it appears, that the propor- 

 tion of males to females, that were born 

 in that period, is 2,361 to 2,288, or nearly 

 13.4 to 13. 



However, though more males are born 

 than females, Dr. Price has sufficiently 

 shown, that there is a considerable differ- 

 ence between the probabilities of life 

 among males and females in favour of the 

 latter ; so that males are more short-lived 

 than females ; and as the greater mortali- 

 ty of males takes place among children, 

 as well as among males at all ages, the 

 fact cannot be accounted for merely by 

 their being more subject to untimely 

 deaths by various accidents, and by their 

 being addicted to the excesses and irre- 

 gularities which shorten life. M. Kerse- 

 boom informs us, that during the course 

 of 125 years in Holland, females have, in 

 all accidents of age, lived about three or 

 four years longer than the same number 

 of males. In several towns of Germany, 

 &c. it appears, that of 7,270 married per- 

 sons who had died, the proportion of 

 married men who died, to the married 

 women, was three to two ; and in Breslaw, 

 for eight years, as five to Uiree. In all 

 Pomerania, during nine years, from 1748 

 to 1756, this proportion was nearly 15 to 

 11. Among the ministers and professors 

 in Scotland', 20 married men die to 12 

 married women, at a medium of 27 years, 

 or in the proportion of five to three ; so 

 that there is the chance of three to two, 



Kk 



