366 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



have passed the military age; but this will be 

 balanced, and indeed much more than balanced, 

 by their utility in the married life. From the 

 beginning it should be taken into consideration, 

 that though a man of fifty be generally considered 

 as past the military age, yet, if he marry a fruit- 

 ful subject, he may by no means be useless to the 

 population; and in fact the supply of 150,000 

 recruits each year would be taken principally 

 from the 300,000 males rising annually to 18; and 

 the annual marriages would be supplied in a great 

 measure from the remaining part of the original 

 body of unmarried persons. Widowers and ba- 

 chelors of forty and fifty, who in the common 

 state of things might have found it difficult to 

 obtain an agreeable partner, would probably see 

 these difficulties removed in such a scarcity of 

 husbands; and the absence of 600,000 persons 

 would of course make room for a very considera- 

 ble addition to the number of annual marriages. 

 This addition in all probability took place. Many 

 among the remaining part of the original body of 

 bachelors, who might otherwise have continued 

 single, would marry under this change of circum- 

 stances; and it is known that a very considerable 

 portion of youths under 18, in order to avoid the 

 military conscriptions, entered prematurely into 

 the married state. This was so much the case, and 

 contributed so much to diminish the number of 

 unmarried persons, that in the beginning of the 

 year 1798 it was found necessary to repeal the 



