372 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



is undiminished ; it will follow, either that Neck- 

 er's multiplier for the births was too small, which 

 is extremely probable, as from this cause he 

 appears to have calculated the population too 

 low ; or that the mortality among those not ex- 

 posed to violent deaths has been less than usual ; 

 which, from the high price of labour and the 

 desertion of the towns for the country, is not 

 unlikely. 



According to Necker and Moheau, the mortality 

 in France, before the revolution, was 1 in 30 or 

 31^.* Considering that the proportion of the 

 population which lives in the country is to that 

 in the towns as 3-^ to ],t this mortality is extra- 

 ordinarily great, caused probably by the misery 

 arising from an excess of population ; and from 

 the remarks of Arthur Young on the state of the 

 peasantry in France,^: which are completely sanc- 

 tioned by Necker,§ this appears to have been 

 really the case. If we suppose that, from the 

 removal of a part of this redundant population, 

 the mortality has decreased from 1 in 30 to 1 in 

 35, this favourable change would go a consider- 

 able way in repairing the breaches made by war 

 on the frontiers. 



The probability is, that both the causes men- 



* De l'Administration des Finances, torn. i. c. ix. p. 255. 

 Essai de Peuchet, p. 29. 



f Young's Travels in Fiance, vol. i. c. xvii. p. 466. 



X See generally c. xvii. vol.i. and the just observations on these 

 subjects interspersed in many other parts of his very valuable Tour. 



§ De ['Administration des Finances, torn. i. c. ix. p. 262, et seq. 



