356 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



the Pays de Vaud ; but his proofs of this fact 

 have been noticed as extremely uncertain. It is 

 not probable, that the Alps are less stocked with 

 cattle than they were formerly ; and if the inhabi- 

 tants be really rather fewer in number, it is pro- 

 bably owing to the smaller proportion of children, 

 and to the improvement which has taken place in 

 the mode of living. 



In some of the smaller cantons, manufactures 

 have been introduced, which, by furnishing a 

 greater quantity of employment, and at the same 

 time a greater quantity of exports for the pur- 

 chase of corn, have of course considerably in- 

 creased their population. But the Swiss writers 

 seem generally to agree, that the districts where 

 they have been established, have upon the 

 whole suffered in point of health, morals and 

 happiness. 



It is the nature of pasturage to produce food 

 for a much greater number of people than it can 

 employ. In countries strictly pastoral, therefore, 

 many persons will be idle, or at most be very 

 inadequately occupied. This state of things na- 

 turally disposes to emigration, and the principal 

 reason why the Swiss have been so much engaged 

 in foreign service. When a father has more than 

 one son, those who are not wanted on the farm 

 are powerfully tempted to enrol themselves as 

 soldiers, or to emigrate in some other way, as 

 the only chance of enabling them to marry. 



It is possible, though not probable, that a more 

 than usual spirit of emigration, operating upon a 



