BOOK II. 



OK THE CHECKS TO POPULATION IN THE DIF- 

 FERENT STATES OF MODERN EUROPE. 



CHAP. I. 



Of the Checks to Population in Norway. 



In reviewing the states of modern Europe, we 

 shall be assisted in our inquiries by registers of 

 births, deaths and marriages, which, when they 

 are complete and correct, point out to us with 

 some degree of precision whether the prevailing 

 checks to population are of the positive or pre- 

 ventive kind. The habits of most European na- 

 tions are of course much alike, owing to the simi- 

 larity of the circumstances in which they are 

 placed ; and it is to be expected therefore that 

 their registers should sometimes give the same 

 results. Relying however too much upon this 

 occasional coincidence, political calculators have 

 been led into the error of supposing that there is, 

 generally speaking, an invariable order of mor- 

 tality in all countries: but it appears, on the con- 



s'2 



