260 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



trary, that this order is extremely variable ; that 

 it is very different in different places of the same 

 country, and within certain limits depends upon 

 circumstances, which it is in the power of man to 

 alter. 



Norway, during nearly the whole of the last 

 century, was in a peculiar degree exempt from 

 the drains of people by war. The climate is re- 

 markably free from epidemic sicknesses; and, in 

 common years, the mortality is less than in any 

 other country in Europe, the registers of which 

 are known to be correct.* The proportion of the 

 annual deaths to the whole population, on an 

 average throughout the whole country, is only as 

 1 to 48/f Yet the population of Norway never 

 seems to have increased with great rapidity. It 

 has made a start within the last ten or fifteen 

 years; but till that period its progress must have 

 been very slow, as we know that the country was 

 peopled in very early ages, and in 1769 its popu- 

 lation was only 723,141. J 



Before we enter upon an examination of its in- 

 ternal economy, we must feel assured that, as the 

 positive checks to its population have been so 

 small, the preventive checks must have been pro- 

 portionably great; and we accordingly find from 

 the registers that the proportion of yearly mar- 



* The registers for Russia give a smaller mortality ; but it is 

 supposed that they are defective. It appears, however, that in 

 England and Wales during the ten years ending with 1820, the 

 mortality was still less than in Norway. 



*rThaarup's Statistik der Danischen Monarcbie, vol. ii. p. 4. 



J Id. Table ii. p. 5. 



