Ch. iv. the middle Parts of Europe. 323 



of subsistence, and the old ones would of course 

 all be full. But the difficulty was in a great mea- 

 sure solved, when it appeared that the mortality- 

 was between 1 in 22 and 1 in 23,* instead of 

 being 1 in 36, as is usual when the marriages are 

 in the proportion of 1 to 108. The births and 

 deaths were nearly equal. The extraordinary 

 number of marriages was not caused by the 

 opening of any new sources of subsistence, and 

 therefore produced no increase of population. 

 It was merely occasioned by the rapid dissolution 

 of the old marriages by death, and the consequent 

 vacancy of some employment by which a family 

 could be supported. 



It might be a question, in this case, whether 

 the too great frequency of marriage, that is, the 

 pressure of the population too hard against the 

 limits of subsistence, contributed most to produce 

 the mortality ; or the mortality, occasioned natu- 

 rally by the employments of the people and un- 

 healthiness of the country, the frequency of mar- 

 riage. In the present instance I should, without 

 doubt, incline to the latter supposition ; particu- 

 larly as it seems to be generally agreed, that the 

 common people in Holland before the Revolution 

 were, upon the whole, in a good state. The great 

 mortality probably arose partly from the natural 

 marshiness of the soil and the number of canals, 

 and partly from the very great proportion of the 

 people engaged in sedentary occupations, and the 



* Sussmilch, Gottliche Ordnung, vol. i. c. ii. sect, xxxvi. p. 92. 



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