Ch. vii. in France (continued). 393 



proportion of male to female births as 16 to 15 ; 

 and the proportion of the annual excess of the births 

 above the deaths to the whole population, which, 

 if the returns are accurate, determines the rate 

 of increase as 1 to 157. 



To what degree the returns of the births, deaths, 

 and marriages in the 6 years ending with 1822 

 are accurate, it is impossible to say. There is a 

 regularity in them which has a favourable ap- 

 pearance. We well know, however, that with 

 the same appearance of regularity there are great 

 omissions in the births and deaths of our own 

 registers. This is at once proved by the circum- 

 stance of the excess of the births above the deaths 

 in the interval between two enumerations falling 

 considerably short of the increase of population 

 which appears by such enumerations to have taken 

 place. The enumerations in France during the 

 last twenty-five years have not been so regular, or 

 so much to be depended upon, as those in Eng- 

 land. The one in 1813, before noticed, may, 

 however, be compared with that in 1820, and if 

 they are both equally near the truth, it will ap- 

 pear that the population of France during the 

 seven years from 1813 to 1820 must have in- 

 creased considerably faster than during the six 

 years ending with 1822, as determined by the ex- 

 cess of the births above the deaths. The whole 

 of this excess during these six years, as above 

 stated, was 1,158,100, the annual average of which 

 is 193,027, which, compared with the mean popu- 

 lation, or the population of 1820, reduced by the 



