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CHAP. V. 



Of the Checks to Population in Switzerland. 



The situation of Switzerland is in many respects 

 so different from the other states of Europe, and 

 some of the facts that have been collected re- 

 specting it are so curious, and tend so strongly 

 to illustrate the general principles of this work, 

 that it seems to merit a separate consideration. 



About 35 or 40 years ago, a great and sudden 

 alarm appears to have prevailed in Switzerland 

 respecting the depopulation of the country; and 

 the transactions of the Economical Society of 

 Berne, which had been established some years 

 before, were crowded with papers deploring the 

 decay of industry, arts, agriculture and manufac- 

 tures, and the imminent danger of a total want 

 of people. The greater part of these writers 

 considered the depopulation of the country as a 

 fact so obvious, as not to require proof. They 

 employed themselves, therefore, chiefly in pro- 

 posing remedies, and, among others, the importa- 

 tion of midwives, the establishment of foundling 

 hospitals, the portioning of young virgins, the 

 prevention of emigration, and the encouragement 

 of foreign settlers.* 



A paper containing very valuable materials 



* See the different Memoirs for the year 1766. 

 VOL. I. Z 



