146 H. R. Storer on the decreasing increase 
and very powerfully too, in all old societies. Wherever popula- 
tion is not kept down by the prudence of individuals or of the 
state, it is kept down by starvation or by disease.” 
But on the other hand, it has been forgotten by these writers 
that the alternative supposed does not exist in the case we have | 
instanced. Marriages in France, unlike some other continental 
States, are continually increasing, and starvation and disease are 
yearly being shorn of their power. ; 
If we turn to Massachusetts, these arguments acquire addi- 
tional force. Amid such general thrift, abundance, wealth, in 4 
state comparatively young and not over settled, there has been 
every reason for the population, general and native, as well as 
foreign, to increase. Want and excessive mortality are alike ab- 
sent. Emigration westward and abroad, the only apparent posi- 
tive check, extensive though this is, can by no means account for 
the evident facts. Conscription, war, despotism, restraining to & 
certain extent the population of France, are all unknown to our- 
selves. With the authors quoted, we are therefore forced to a 
single position, that this annual lessening of births must be 
owing, 1n great measure abroad, almost wholly with us at home, 
to ‘prudence’ on the part of the community, not as a State, which 
ever encourages population, but as individuals, : 
Before proceeding, I would remark that the condition of things 
* Loe. cit., pp. 194, 195. Journal des Economistes, 1847. 
¢ Loc. cit., i, 336. t Tbid., i, 417. 
