Ch. vi. in Fiance. 375 



the circumstance will be obviously accounted for 

 by the extraordinary increase in the illegitimate 

 births mentioned before in this chapter, which 

 amount at present to one-eleventh of all the births, 

 instead of one-forty-seventh, according to the cal- 

 culation of Necker before the revolution.* 



may not be incorrect, and in future, the births and deaths may not 

 bear so large a proportion to the population. The contrast between 

 France and England in this respect is quite wonderful. 



The part of this work relating to population is not drawn up with 

 much knowledge of the subject. One remark is very curious. It 

 is observed that the proportion of marriages to the population is as 

 1 to 110, and of births as 1 to 25 ; from which it is inferred, that 

 one-fourth of the born live to marry. If this inference were just, 

 France would soon be depopulated. 



In calculating the value of lives, the author makes use of Buf- 

 fon's tables, which are entirely incorrect, being founded princi- 

 pally on registers taken from the villages round Paris. They make 

 the probability of life at birth only a little above eight years ; 

 which, taking the towns and the country together, is very short of 

 the just average. 



Scarcely any thing worth noticing has been added in this work 

 to the details given in the Essay of Peuchet, which I have already 

 frequently referred to. On the whole I have not seen sufficient 

 grounds to make me alter any of my conjectures in this chapter, 

 though probably they are not well-founded. Indeed, in adopting 

 Sir F. d'lvernois' calculations respecting the actual loss of men 

 during the revolution, I never thought myself borne out by facts ; 

 but the reader will be aware that I adopted them rather for the 

 sake of illustration than from supposing them strictly true. 



* Essai de Peuchet, p. 28. It is highly probable that this in- 

 crease of illegitimate births occasioned a more than usual number 

 of children to be exposed in those dreadful receptacles, les Hopitaux 

 des Enfans trouxts, as noticed by Sir Francis d'lvernois ; but pro- 

 bably this cruel custom was confined to particular districts, and 

 the number exposed, upon the whole, might bear no great propor- 

 tion to the sum of all the births. 



