Ch. vi. Checks to Popvlation in France. 3G3 



Such an event, if true, very strongly confirms 

 the general principles of this work ; and assuming 

 it for the present as a fact, it may tend to throw 

 some light on the subject, to trace a little in de- 

 tail the manner in which such an event might 

 happen. 



In every country there is always a considerable 

 body of unmarried persons, formed by the gradual 

 accumulation of the excess of the number rising 

 annually to the age of puberty above the number 

 of persons annually married. The stop to the 

 further accumulation of this body is when its 

 number is such, that the yearly mortality equals 

 the yearly accessions that are made to it. In the 

 Pays de Vaud, as appeared in the last chapter, 

 this body, including widows and widowers, per- 

 sons who are not actually in the state of marriage, 

 equals the whole number of married persons. 

 But in a country like France, where both the 

 mortality and the tendency to marriage are much 

 greater than in Switzerland, this body does not 

 bear so large a proportion to the population. 



According to a calculation in an Essai (Time 

 Statistique Generale, published at Paris in 1800, 

 by M. Peuchet, the number of unmarried males 

 in France between 18 and 50 is estimated at 

 1,451,003; and the number of males, whether 

 married or not, between the same ages, at 

 5,000,000.* It does not appear at what period 



* P. 32, 8vo. 78 pages. 



