Ch. xii. Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 503 



riageable had not probably married the year 

 before, the number of marriages in the year 1712 

 is great in proportion to the population; and, 

 though not much more than half of the number 

 which took place during the preceding year, is 

 greater than the average number in the last period 

 before the plague. The proportion of births to 

 marriages in 1712, though greater than in the 

 preceding year, on account of the smaller com- 

 parative number of marriages, is, with reference 

 to other countries, not great, being as 3.6 to 1, or 

 3.6 to 10. But the proportion of births to deaths, 

 though less than in the preceding year, when so 

 very large a proportion of the people married, is, 

 with reference to other countries, still unusually 

 great, being as 220 to 100; an excess of births, 

 which, calculated on a mortality of 1 in 36, would 

 double the population of a country (according to 

 Table I. page 496) in 2\\ years. 



From this period the number of annual mar- 

 riages begins to be regulated by the diminished 

 population, and of course to sink, considerably 

 below the average number of marriages before 

 the plague, depending principally on the number 

 of persons rising annually to a marriageable state. 

 In the year 1720, about nine or ten years after 

 the plague, the number of annual marriages, either 

 from accident, or the beginning operation of the 

 preventive check, is the smallest ; and it is at this 

 time that the proportion of births to marriages 

 rises very high. In the period from 1717 to 

 1721 the proportion, as appears by the table, is 



