Ch. vii. in France (continued). 387 



stationary. It may further be reasonably con- 

 jectured that the returns of marriages were not 

 published on account of their being considered as 

 unsatisfactory, and shewing a diminution of mar- 

 riages, and an increased proportion of illegitimate 

 births. 



From these returns, and the circumstances 

 accompanying them, it may be concluded, that 

 whatever might have been the real proportion of 

 births before the revolution, and for six or seven 

 subsequent years, when the manages prematures 

 are alluded to in the Proces Verbaux, and pro- 

 portions of births as 1 in 21, 22, and 23, are men- 

 tioned in the Statistique Generate, the proportions 

 of births, deaths, and marriages, are now all con- 

 siderably less than they were formerly supposed 

 to be.* 



It has been asked, whether, if this fact be al- 

 lowed, it does not clearly follow that the popula- 

 tion was incorrectly estimated before the revolu- 

 tion, and that it has been diminished rather than 

 increased since 1792? To this question I should 

 distinctly answer, that it does not follow. It has 

 been seen, in many of the preceding chapters, 



* In the year 1 792 a law was passed extremely favourable to 

 early marriages. This was repealed in the year XI., and a law 

 substituted which threw great obstacles in the way of marriage, 

 according to Peuchet (p. 23 t.) These two laws will assist in ac- 

 counting for a small proportion of births and marriages in the ten 

 years previous to 1N13, consistently witli the possibility of a large 

 proportion in the first six or seven years after the commencement 

 of the revolution. 



cc2 



