458 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



rapid increase occurs in the register of the parish 

 of Duthil,* in the county of Elgin ; and as errors 

 of excess are not so probable as errors of omission, 

 it seems to be worthy of attention. The propor- 

 tion of annual births to the whole population is as 

 1 to 12, of marriages as 1 to 55, and of deaths the 

 same. The births are to the deaths as 70 to 15, 

 or 4-f to 1. We may suppose some inaccuracy 

 respecting the number of deaths, which seems to 

 err on the side of defect ; but the very extraordi- 

 nary proportion of the annual births, amounting 

 to -jL of the whole population, seems not to be 

 easily liable to error ; and the other circumstances 

 respecting the parish tend to confirm the state- 

 ment. Out of a population of 830, there were 

 only three bachelors, and each marriage yielded 

 seven children. Yet with all this, the population 

 is supposed to have decreased considerably since 

 1745 ; and it appears that this excessive tendency 

 to increase had been occasioned by an excessive 

 tendency to emigrate. The writer mentions very 

 great emigrations ; and observes, that whole tribes, 

 who enjoyed the comforts of life in a reasonable 

 degree, had of late years emigrated from different 

 parts of Scotland, from mere humour, and a fan- 

 tastical idea of becoming their own masters and 

 freeholders. 



Such an extraordinary proportion of births, 

 caused evidently by habits of emigration, shews 

 the extreme difficulty of depopulating a country 



* Vol. iv. p. 308. 



