But, the appointed limits once reached, either the procreative energies of the people will be artificially restricted, as has been the case in France,[1] or
- ↑ "Un jeune ménage .... échappant par une stérilité systématique aux charges du mariage pousse rapidement sa fortune, .... Ceux au contraire .... qui conservent la tradition des mariages féconds ne sortent pas de la condition de salariés."—La Reforme Sociale en France par M. F. le Flay. Paris, 1866, p. 388.
"Whether a system which discourages marriage or delays it to a later age than that intended by nature, or checks fecundity by mechanical expedients, can be justly considered beneficial, is another question: in my own opinion, a race that marries, produces children, and populates the world, enjoys a happier destiny. The town population of France, excluding Savoy, Savoy Haute, and Alpes Maritimes, as they were not included in 1856, was 9,844,828 in 1856, and 10,644,401 in 1861, the increase per cent in the five years was 8·12 or 1·57 per cent per annum. The rural population, excluding the above new departments, was 26,194,536 in 1856, and 26,072,853 in 1861: there was therefore a decrease in the rural population; the decrease per cent of the population in the five years being ·47 or ·09 per cent per annum.
The French returns make the town and rural population to have increased as follows: — See Appendix, p. 34.
seldom contented until he had bought a garden, or a garden and house, and that the town labourers generally deferred their marriages for some years, in order to save enough to purchase either one or both of these luxuries." —Mill's Political Economy, Vol. I. p. 357.
"In some parts of Switzerland," says Mr. Kay, "as in the canton of Argovie for instance, a peasant never marries before he attains the age of 25 years, and generally much later in life; and in that canton the women very seldom marry before they have attained the age of thirty."—Ibid. Vol. I. p. 357.
