Ch. vii. in France {continued). 391 



state of the labouring classes in France before and 

 since the revolution be in any degree near the truth, 

 as the march of the population in both periods 

 seems to have been nearly the same, the present 

 proportion of births could not have been applicable 

 at the period when Necker wrote. At the same 

 time it is by no means improbable that he took 

 too low a multiplier. It is hardly credible under 

 all circumstances that the population of France 

 should have increased in the interval between 1785 

 and 1802 so much as from 25-i- millions to 28. 

 But if we allow that the multiplier might at that 

 time have been 27 instead of 25f, it will be allow- 

 ing as much as is in any degree probable, and yet 

 this will imply an increase of nearly two millions 

 from 1785 to 1813; an increase far short of the 

 rate that has taken place in England, but still suf- 

 ficient amply to shew the force of the principle of 

 population in overcoming obstacles apparently the 

 most powerful. 



With regard to the question of the increase of 

 births in the six or seven first years after the com- 

 mencement of the revolution, there is no proba- 

 bility of its ever being determined. 



In the confusion of the times, it is scarcely pos- 

 sible to suppose that the registers should have 

 been regularly kept; and as they were not col- 

 lected in the year IX., there is no chance of their 

 being brought forward in a correct state at a sub- 

 sequent period. 



