Ch. ix. in England {continued). 439 



of baptisms, burials and marriages, given in the 

 Preliminary Observations to the Population Ab- 

 stracts,* will shew how very little dependence 

 ought to be placed upon inferences respecting 

 the population drawn from the number of births, 

 deaths or marriages in individual years. If, for 

 instance, we were estimating the population in the 

 two years 1800 and 1801, compared with the 

 two following years 1802 and 1803, from the pro- 

 portion of marriages to the population, assuming 

 this proportion to be always the same, it would 

 appear that, if the population in the first two years 

 were nine millions, in the second two years im- 

 mediately succeeding it would be considerably 

 above twelve millions, and thus it would seem to 

 have increased above three millions, or more than 

 one-third, in this short interval. Nor would the 

 result of an estimate, formed from the births for 

 the two years 1800 and 1801, compared with the 

 two years 1803 and 1804, be materially different; 

 at least such an estimate would indicate an 

 increase of two millions six hundred thousand in 

 three years. 



The reader can hardly be surprised at these re- 

 sults, if he recollects that the births, deaths and 

 marriages bear but a small proportion to the whole 

 population; and that consequently variations in 

 either of these, which may take place from tern- 

 rapid an increase of population in that interval, do not bear the 

 proper relation to each other. It is probable that the number given 

 for 1770 is too great. 



* P. 20. 



