452 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



the mortality in these parishes was only 1 in 56, 

 and the proportion of births 1 in 44. But these 

 proportions are so extraordinary that it is difficult 

 to conceive that they approach near the truth. 

 Combining them with the calculations of Mr. 

 Wilkie, it will not appear probable that the pro- 

 portion of deaths and births in Scotland should be 

 smaller than what has been allowed for England 

 and Wales ; namely, 1 in 40 for the deaths, and 1 

 in 30 for the births ; and it seems to be generally 

 agreed that the proportion of births to deaths is 

 4 to 3.* 



With respect to the marriages, it will be still 

 more difficult to form a conjecture. They are 

 registered so irregularly, that no returns of them 

 are given in the Population Abstract. I should 

 naturally have thought, from the Statistical Ac- 

 count, that the tendency to marriage in Scotland 

 was upon the whole greater than in England ; but 

 if it be true that the births and deaths bear the 

 same proportion to each other, and to the whole 

 population, in both countries, the proportion of 

 marriages cannot be very different. It should be 

 remarked, however, that supposing the operation 

 of the preventive check to be exactly the same in 

 both countries, and the climates to be equally 

 salubrious, a greater degree of want and poverty 

 would take place in Scotland, before the same 



* Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xxi. p. 383. The com- 

 parison with England here, refers to the time of the first enumera- 

 tion. There is little doubt that the mortality of Scotland has 

 diminished, and the proportion of births to deaths increased since 

 1800. 



