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Redon, Vitré, Dol, Dinard and Cancale are the towns of chief importance and are separately noticed. At Combourg there is a picturesque château of the 14th and 15th centuries where Chateaubriand passed a portion of his early life. St Aubin-du-Cormier has the ruins of an important feudal fortress of the 13th century built by the dukes of Brittany for the protection of their eastern frontier. Montfort-sur-Meu has a cylindrical keep of the 15th century which is a survival of its old ramparts.

ILLEGITIMACY (from “illegitimate,” Lat. illegitimus, not in accordance with law, hence born out of lawful wedlock), the state of being of illegitimate birth. The law dealing with the legitimation of children born out of wedlock will be found under Legitimacy and Legitimation. How far the prevalence of illegitimacy in any community can be taken as a guide to the morality of that community is a much disputed question. The phenomenon itself varies so much in different localities, even in localities where the same factors seem to prevail, that affirmative conclusions are for the most part impossible to draw. In the United Kingdom, where the figures differ considerably for the three countries—England, Scotland, Ireland—the reasons that might be assigned for the differences are negatived if applied on the same lines, as they might well be, to certain other countries. Then again, racial, climatic and social differences must be allowed for, and the influence of legislation is to be taken into account. The fact that in some countries marriage is forbidden until a man has completed his military service, in another, that consent of parents is requisite, in another, that “once a bastard always a bastard” is the rule, while in yet another that the merest of subsequent formalities will legitimize the offspring, must account in some degree for variations in figures.

Table I.—Illegitimate Births per 1000 Births (excluding still-born).

	1876–1880.	1881–1885.	1886–1890.	1891–1895.	1896–1900.	1901–1905.
England and Wales	48	48	46	42	41	40
Scotland	85	83	81	74	68	64
Ireland	24	27	28	36	36	26
Denmark	101	100	95	94	96	101
Norway	84	81	75	71	74	..
Sweden	100	102	103	105	113	..
Finland	73	70	65	65	66	..
Russia	28	27	27	27	27	..
Austria	138	145	147	146	141	..
Hungary	73	79	82	85	90	94
Switzerland	47	48	47	46	45	..
Germany	87	92	92	91	90	84
Netherlands	31	30	32	31	27	23
Belgium	74	82	87	88	80	68
France	72	78	83	87	88	88
Portugal	..	..	123	122	121	..
Spain	..	..	..	..	49	44
Italy	72	76	74	69	62	56
New South Wales	42	44	49	60	69	70
Victoria	43	46	49	60	69	70
Queensland	39	41	44	48	59	65
South Australia	..	22	25	30	38	41
West Australia	..	..	..	48	51	42
Tasmania	..	44	38	46	57	..
New Zealand	23	29	32	38	44	45

Table I. gives the number of illegitimate births per 1000 births in various countries of the world for quinquennial periods. It is to be noted that still-born births are excluded, as in the United Kingdom (contrary to the practice prevailing in most European countries) registration of such births is not compulsory. The United States is omitted, as there is no national system of registration of births.

This method of measuring illegitimacy by ascertaining the proportion of illegitimate births in every thousand births is a fairly accurate one, but there is another valuable one which is often applied, that of comparing the number of illegitimate births with each thousand unmarried females at the child-bearing age the “corrected” rate as opposed to the “crude,” as it is usually termed. This is given for certain countries in Table II.

Table II.—Illegitimate Births to 1000 Unmarried and Widowed Females, aged 15-49 years.

Country.	1846–55.	1856–65.	1866–75.	1876–85.	1886–95.	1896–1905.
England and Wales	17	18	16	13	10	8
Scotland	..	22	23	20	17	13
Ireland	..	..	5	4	5	3
Denmark	..	28	27	26	24	23
Sweden	20	22	23	22	22	..
Germany	..	..	..	28	27	26
Netherlands	..	..	10	9	9	6
Belgium	16	16	17	19	17	17
France	15	17	17	16	17	18
Italy	..	..	..	24	24	19

The generally accepted idea that the inhabitants of the warmer countries of the south of Europe are more ardent in temperament has at least no support as shown in the figures in Table I., where we find a higher rate of illegitimacy in Sweden and Denmark than in Spain or Italy. Religion, however, must be taken into account as having a strong influence in preventing unchastity, though it cannot be concluded that any particular creed is more powerful in this direction than another; for example, the figures for Austria and Ireland are very different. It cannot be said, either, that figures bear out the statement that where there is a high rate of illegitimacy there is little prostitution. It is more probable that in a country where the standard of living is low, and early marriages are the rule, the illegitimate birth-rate will be low. As regards England and Wales, the illegitimate birth-rate has been steadily declining for many years, not only in actual numbers, but also in proportion to the population.

Table III.—England and Wales.

Year.	Illegitimate Births.	Proportion to 1000 of population.	Illegitimate Births in 1000 Births.
1860	43,693	2.2	64
1865	46,585	2.2	62
1870	44,737	2.0	56
1875	40,813	1.7	48
1880	42,542	1.6	48
1885	42,793	1.6	48
1890	38,412	1.3	44
1895	38,836	1.3	42
1900	36,814	1.1	40
1905	37,515	1.1	40
1907	36,189	1.0	39

The corrected rate bears out the result shown in Table III as follows:

Table IV.—England and Wales. Illegitimate Birth-rate calculated on
the Unmarried and Widowed Female Population, aged 15-45 years.

	Rate per 1000.	Compared with rate in 1876–1880, taken as 100.
1876–1880	14.4	100.0
1881–1885	13.5	93.8
1886–1890	11.8	81.9
1891–1895	10.1	70.1
1896–1900	9.2	63.9
1901–1905	8.4	58.3
1906	8.1	56.3
1907	7.8	54.2

Table V. gives the illegitimate births to 1000 births in England and Wales for the ten years 1897–1906 and for