Law of Population 85 



marriage-rate must have amounted to io-o or 120 per 

 1000 of the population ; from 1873 to 1883 it was only 

 4-5 ; from 1883 to 1894 it was 4-4 ; from 1893 to 1903 

 it was 5-0. The numbers for England, similarly, were 

 7'9> 7'7> an d 7'8. This is a striking illustration of how 

 the demand of the labour market in determining the 

 marriage-rate is imperative and must be obeyed. But 

 for emigration the power to marry would have suffered 

 a much more severe restriction. It is very easy to 

 demonstrate how this law operates in an agricultural 

 community such as that of Ireland : the small farms 

 cease to pay and the tenants have not sufficient means 

 to marry ; as depreciation continues larger farms are 

 affected similarly, until a large proportion of the 

 farming class is forced to remain single. The farms 

 are vacated in the course of time, and, not being occu- 

 pied, are used to enlarge neighbouring holdings. 

 Marriages, perforce, become fewer and fewer, as has 

 already been demonstrated in the case of Ireland ; 

 deaths become more numerous than the births, and 

 the population must needs decrease. 



In a stagnant community emigration acts as a 

 means of stimulating the marriage and birth-rate, as 

 the existing posts of employment are vacated by the 

 emigrants, and young men acquiring these are enabled 

 to marry much earlier than otherwise. As long as this 

 continues the marriage and birth-rate will keep up 

 correspondingly to fill the gaps made by the removals 

 from the community. 



Emigration does not, therefore, tend to depopulate. 

 The only cause of this is a declining labour market. 

 " We therefore reach the inevitable conclusion," says 

 Paulin, " that England is not by a single family less 

 populous than she would have been if she had not sent 

 forth the men who peopled the vast continents of 

 North America and Australia." 



