322 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. ii. 



annual marriages compared with the number of 

 inhabitants as between 1 in 107 and 1 in 113, in 

 countries which have not been thinned by plagues 

 or wars, or in which there is no sudden increase 

 in the means of subsistence.* And Crome, a later 

 statistical writer, taking a mean between 1 in 92 

 and 1 in 122, estimates the average proportion of 

 marriages to inhabitants as 1 to 108. f But in the 

 registers of 22 Dutch villages, the accuracy of 

 which, according to Sussmilch, there is no reason 

 to doubt, it appears that out of 64 persons there 

 is 1 annual marriage.^: This is a most extraor- 

 dinary deviation from the mean proportion. When 

 I first saw this number mentioned, not having then 

 adverted to the mortality in these villages, I was 

 much astonished; and very little satisfied with 

 Sussmilch's attempt to account for it, by talking 

 of the great number of trades, and the various 

 means of getting a livelihood in Holland ;§ as it is 

 evident that, the country having been long in the 

 same state, there would be no reason to expect 

 any great accession of new trades and new means 



* Sussmilch, Gottliche Ordnung, vol. i. c. iv. sect. h'i. p. 126. 



f Crome, ueber die Grbsse und Bevolkerung der Europ. Staaten, 

 p. 88, Leips. 1785. 



% Sussmilch, Gottliche Ordnung, vol. i. c. iv. sect, lviii. p. 127. 

 Such a proportion of marriages could not, however, be supplied in 

 a country like Holland, from the births within the territory, but 

 must be caused principally by the influx of foreigners.: and it is 

 known that such an influx, before the Revolution, was constautly 

 taking place. Holland, indeed, has been called the grave of Ger- 

 many. 



§ Sussmilch, Gottliche Ordnung, vol. i. c. iv. sect, lviii. p. 128. 



