82 Malthusianism and the 



death-rate that it would if all the births were legiti- 

 mate. 



Where the fecundity of the average marriage is 

 greater the proportion of marriages is lower than in a 

 country where the fecundity is less, supposing the 

 demands of the labour market to be similar in both 

 countries. This can be clearly demonstrated by a 

 comparison of English and Scotch statistics for a period 

 of thirty-three years (1871-1903) . The average number 

 of births annually in 1000 persons was in England 32-0, 

 in Scotland 32-2. The equality, as he points out, is 

 surprising when we perceive that throughout the period 

 the number of marriages per 1000 persons amounted in 

 England to 7-8, in Scotland to 7-0 only. In order to 

 discover the relative productivity of English and 

 Scotch marriages we must take into account the rela- 

 tive illegitimacy of the two countries. In Scotland it 

 was 8 per cent of the births, while in England it was 

 only 4-5. Deducting that from the sum total of the 

 births, we find that 78 English marriages produced 

 306 children, while 70 Scots produced 296 children. 

 The resulting difference in the fecundity of the marri- 

 ages of the two countries is that in Scotland 100 marri- 

 ages produce 423 children, in England they yield only 

 392, or 7-4 per cent fewer. The labour market of the 

 two countries called for an equal birth-rate, and this 

 was accordingly obtained, regardless of illegitimacy or 

 fecundity. 



The ages at which men marry in different classes only 

 proves that, as a general rule, men marry when they 

 are able to do so. Men who labour with their hands 

 can marry at an early age, while men who live by their 

 brains, and require to establish a position before they 

 secure a sufficient income, are perforce compelled to 

 defer marriage to a later period of life. Mr. Benjamin 

 Kidd, in Appendix I to his " Social Evolution," gives 



