378 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



and children ; and the body of unmarried persons, 

 of a military age, must be diminished in a very 

 striking manner. This indeed is known to be the 

 case, from the returns of the prefects which have 

 already been received. 



It has appeared that the point at which the 

 drains of men will begin essentially to affect the 

 population of a country is, when the original body 

 of unmarried persons is exhausted, and the annual 

 demands are greater than the excess of the num- 

 ber of males, rising annually to the age of puberty, 

 above the number wanted to complete the usual 

 proportion of annual marriages. France was pro- 

 bably at some distance from this point at the con- 

 clusion of the war; but in the present state of her 

 population, with an increased proportion of women 

 and children, and a great diminution of males of a 

 military age, she could not make the same gigantic 

 exertions, which were made at one period, with- 

 out trenching on the sources of her population. 



At all times the number of males of a military 

 age in France was small in proportion to the po- 

 pulation, on account of the tendency to marriage,* 

 and the great number of children. Necker takes 

 particular notice of this circumstance. He ob- 

 serves, that the effect of the very great misery 

 of the peasantry is to produce a dreadful mor- 

 tality of infants under three or four years of age ; 

 and the consequence is, that the number of young 



* The proportion of marriages to the population in France, ac- 

 cording to Necker, is 1 to 1 13, torn. i. 6. ix. \y. 255. 



