Ch. iv. Of the Checks to Population, 8$c. 321 



marriages on the deaths. It has been justly ob- 

 served by Montesquieu, that, wherever there is a 

 place for two persons to live comfortably, a marriage 

 will certainly ensue:* but in most of the coun- 

 tries in Europe, in the present state of their po- 

 pulation, experience will not allow us to expect 

 any sudden and great increase in the means of 

 supporting a family. The place therefore for the 

 new marriage must, in general, be made by the 

 dissolution of an old one ; and we find in conse- 

 quence, that except after some great mortality, 

 from whatever cause it may have proceeded, or 

 some sudden change of policy peculiarly favour- 

 able to cultivation and trade, the number of annual 

 marriages is regulated principally by the number 

 of annual deaths. They reciprocally influence 

 each other. There are few countries in which 

 the common people have so much foresight, as to 

 defer marriage till they have a fair prospect of 

 being able to support properly all their children. 

 Some of the mortality therefore, in almost every 

 country, is forced by the too great frequency of 

 marriage ; and in every country a great mortality, 

 whether arising principally from this cause or 

 occasioned by the number of great towns and 

 manufactories and the natural unhealthiness of the 

 situation, will necessarily produce a great fre- 

 quency of marriage. 



A most striking exemplification of this observa- 

 tion occurs in the case of some villages in Holland. 

 Sussmilch has calculated the mean proportion of 



* Esprit des Loix, liv. xxii. c. x. 

 VOL. I. Y 



