Ch. iv. the middle Parts of Europe. 329 



Such changes therefore in the habits of a people 

 should evidently be taken into consideration. 



The most general rule that can be laid down on 

 this subject is, perhaps, that any direct encourage- 

 ments to marriage must be accompanied by an 

 increased mortality. The natural tendency to 

 marriage is in every country so great, that with- 

 out any encouragements whatever a proper place 

 for a marriage will always be filled up. Such en- 

 couragements therefore must either be perfectly 

 futile, or produce a marriage where there is not a 

 proper place for one ; and the consequence must 

 necessarily be increased poverty and mortality. 

 Montesquieu, in his Lettres Persannes, says, that, 

 in the past wars of France, the fear of being en- 

 rolled in the militia tempted a great number of 

 young men to marry without the proper means of 

 supporting a family, and the effect was the birth 

 of a crowd of children, " que Ton cherche encore 

 " en France, et que la misere, la famine et Ies 

 " maladies en ont fait disparoitre."* 



After so striking an illustration of the necessary 

 effects of direct encouragements to marriage, it is 

 perfectly astonishing that, in his Esprit des Loix 

 he should say that Europe is still in a state to re- 

 quire laws, which favour the propagation of the 

 human species. f 



Sussmilch adopts the same ideas ; and though 

 he contemplates the case of the number of mar- 



* Lettrc cxxii. 



t Esprit des- Loix, liv. xxiii. c. xxvi. 



