388 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



that the proportions of births, deaths, and mar- 

 riages, are extremely different in different coun- 

 tries, and there is the strongest reason for be- 

 lieving that they are very different in the same 

 country at different periods, and under different 

 circumstances. 



That changes of this kind have taken place in 

 Switzerland has appeared to be almost certain. 

 A similar effect from increased healthiness in our 

 own country may be considered as an established 

 fact. And if we give any credit to the best 

 authorities that can be collected on the subject, 

 it can scarcely be doubted that the rate of mor- 

 tality has diminished, during the last one or two 

 hundred years, in almost every country in Europe. 

 There is nothing therefore that ought to surprise 

 us in the mere fact of the same population being 

 kept up, or even a decided increase taking place, 

 under a smaller proportion of births, deaths and 

 marriages. And the only question is, whether 

 the actual circumstances of France seem to render 

 such a change probable. 



Now it is generally agreed that the condition of 

 the lower classes of people in France before the 

 revolution was very wretched. The wages of la- 

 bour were about 20 sous, or ten pence a day, at a 

 time when the wages of labour in England were 

 nearly seventeen pence, and the price of wheat of 

 the same quality in the two countries was not 

 very different, Accordingly Arthur Young re- 

 presents the labouring classes of France, just at 

 the commencement of the revolution, as " 76 per 



