( 384 ) 



CHAP. VII. 



Of the Checks to Population in France (continued.) 



I have not thought it advisable to alter the 

 conjectural calculations and suppositions of the 

 preceding chapter, on account of the returns 

 of the prefects for the year IX., as well as 

 some returns published since by the government 

 in 1813, having given a smaller proportion of 

 births than I had thought probable; first, because 

 these returns do not contain the early years of the 

 revolution, when the encouragement to marriage 

 and the proportion of births might be expected to 

 be the greatest ; and secondly, because they still 

 seem fully to establish the main fact, which it was 

 the object of the chapter to account for, namely, 

 the undiminished population of France, notwith- 

 standing the losses sustained during the revolu- 

 tion ; although it may have been effected rather 

 by a decreased proportion of deaths than an in- 

 creased proportion of births. • 



According to the returns of the year IX., the 

 proportions of the births, deaths, and marriages, 

 to the whole population, are as follows:— 



Births. Deaths. Marriages. 



1 in 33 1 in 38-f- 1 in 157.* 



* See a valuable note of M. Prevost of Geneva to his transla- 

 tion of this work, vol. ii. p. 88. M. Prevost thinks it probable that 



