Ch. ix. Siberia, Northern and Southern. 179 



prove that spontaneous divisions of this kind did 

 not often take place, and that the children of the 

 colonists might not always find an easy mode of 

 settling themselves, and rearing up fresh families. 

 In the flourishing colony of the Moravian brethren 

 in Sarepta, it is said that the young people cannot 

 marry without the consent of their priests ; and 

 that their consent is not in general granted till late.* 

 It would appear, therefore, that among the obsta- 

 cles to the increase of population, even in these 

 new colonies, the preventive check has its share; 

 Population can never increase with great rapidity 

 but when the real price of common labour is very 

 high, as in America ; and from the state of society 

 in this part of the Russian territories, and the con- 

 sequent want of a proper vent for the produce of 

 industry, this effect, which usually accompanies 

 new colonies and is essential to their rapid growth, 

 does not take place in any considerable degree. t 



* Voy. de Pallas, torn. v. p. 175. 



t Other causes may concur in restraining the population of Si- 

 beria, which have not been noticed by Pallas. In general, it 

 should be observed, with regard to all the immediate checks to 

 population, which I either have had or shall have occasion to men- 

 tion, that, as it is evidently impossible to ascertain the extent to 

 which each acts, and the proportion of the whole procreative power 

 which it impedes, no accurate inferences respecting the actual state 

 of population can be drawn from them & priori. The prevailing 

 checks in two different nations may appear to be exactly the same 

 as to kind, yet if they are different in degree, the rate of increase 

 in each will, of course, be as different as possible. All that can 

 be done, therefore, is to proceed as in physical inquiries; that is, 

 first to observe the facts, and then account for them from the best 

 lights that can be collected. 



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