246 NOTES ON THE POPULATION OF NEW ENGLAND. 



578 in 10,000 of their own race ; foreign, 24,523, or 1491 in 10,000 

 of their own race ; " a difference of a most significant character. 

 " In Boston there were, Americans, 7,278, or 966 in 10,000, foreign, 

 13,032, or 2,053 in 10,000 in three years. " He adds,—" These facts 

 certainly show a much greater tendency to marriage, and a more 

 rapid production among the foreign than among the native popula- 

 tion here. " He says on page 121 — " foreigners generally intermar- 

 ry with each other, so far as we have means of observation ; there 

 are comparatively few instances of natives and aliens uniting together ; 

 so few are there that they do not militate with the general rule. 

 With the Irish especially, this rule is almost universal, and with all 

 it will be safe to say that there are no more marriages of foreigners 

 than there are foreign marriageable females, the exceptions are so 

 rare as not to destroy any extensive calculations made in regard to 

 it. " Dr. Jarvis seeks to weaken the facts thus brought out, by 

 intimating that the children of foreigners dying young are more 

 numerous than those of the natives who die young, aud that the 

 rapid increase among the former may thus be partly accounted for. 

 This, however, is not enough. The deaths must indeed be wonder- 

 fully frequent among the offspring of emigrants, if they can make 

 598 births in 10,000, equal to 1,491 in 10,000, or 966 in 10,000 equal 

 to 2,053 in 10,000. The facts I believe must stand, the excess of 

 births among the foreign over the native population indicating one of 

 two things respecting the latter, — either that they are an enfeebled 

 race, or addicted to practices which I will not name. 



These figures confirm all my own observations. A large family is 

 comparatively seldom met with in Xew England. Indeed, the absence 

 of children altogether, appears to be a far commoner thing than any 

 large number of them in a household. The remarks of the old 

 people likewise sustain my view. Such can run over long lists of 

 households, which, during the past generation, were like households at 

 the present day in Britain, crowded with little people ; and when 

 they do so, they invariably note the difference between thirty or 

 forty years since and the present time. I am now speaking chiefly 

 of Xew England, of which Massachusetts is the best State : but the 

 Census returns for the entire Union, show a general decrease, rather 

 than an increase in the number of the young. The following abstract 

 is taken from some remarks which I have already published on this 

 subject: — Thus, "in 1830, there were, in the whole Union, a fraction 

 over eighteen per cent, of males, and seventeen per cent, of fe- 

 males umder five years of age ; while in 1850, there were under 

 five years, only fourteen and rather more than a half per cent, of 



