the proper proportion of the first to these second and subsequent connexions.

८८

(2) The errors, about to be refuted, on this subject are expressed in the following passage of a writer already so copiously referred to, in his chapter of the fruitfulness of marriages. "It is probable," he says," that the natural prolificness of women is nearly "the same in most parts of the world; but the prolific"ness of marriages is liable to be affected by a variety "of circumstances peculiar to each country, and particularly by the number of late marriages. In all "countries the second and third marriages alone form a most important consideration, and materially influIence the average proportions. According to Sus"milch, in all Pomerania, from 1748 to 1756, both "included, the number of persons who married were "56,956, and of these 10,586 were widows and wi"dowers. According to Busching, in Prussia and "Silesia, for the year 1781, out of 29,308 persons who "married, 4841 were widows and widowers, and con"sequently, the proportion of marriages will be given "full one sixth too much. In estimating the prolific"ness of married women, the number of illegitimate "births would tend, though in a slight degree, to coun"terbalance the overplus of marriages; and as it is

found that the number of widowers who marry again "is greater than the number of the widows, the whole "of the correction should not, on this account, be supplied'."

(3) The first of these assertions, namely, that the natural prolificness of women is nearly the same everywhere, it will be the sole purpose of the ensuing Book to disprove; and the next, that such prolificness is affected by comparatively late marriages, will be ex

1 Malthus, Essay on Population, vol, i., pp. 476, 477.

amined and refuted in one of the most important chapters of this. The number and influence of second and third marriages on the population, and how far their effect is counterbalanced by illegitimate births, will now be attended to. I shall first subjoin the table last referred to, on account of the further particulars it gives.

TABLE XXV.

SHEWING THE PROPORTION OF THE FIRST AND SUBSEQUent MarRIAGES IN 14,654 Weddings in PRUSSIA, AND THE SEXES AND AGES OF THE PARTIES RESPECTIVELY',

(4) The above table is interesting in relation to the particular proportions it exhibits, especially as to the ages of the re-marrying parties; in other respects it is plainly inapplicable to the present state of things, as indeed any document of this kind, derived from Prussia, I trust would be, if applied to similar calculations respecting other countries, and especially this: and, amongst other reasons, for this important one more particularly, the facility with which divorces are obtained in that country greatly augments the number of after marriages; many of such divorces, it cannot be doubted, being effected for the very pur

1 Susmilch, Gott. Ordnung., th. iii., p. 94.

pose of forming them'. This is regarded as one of the greatest evils prevailing in that country, and perhaps is only to be matched by another of a directly contrary nature, which exists in this, namely, the difficulty, or, indeed impossibility, of a poor man's obtaining a divorce here at all. Adultery, both according to the laws of God and man, dissolves marriage; ours profess to do so, but it is in reality only in behalf of the rich, that is, the few, that they interfere in this Christian country. No means exist within the reach of the great mass of the community to do that which the dictates of nature and the doctrine of Christ authorize, and indeed command a man to do under this insufferable injury,— to put away his wife and take another. The poor man that does this, in the only practicable way that is left open to him, and sanctifies the act with the solemnities of his religion, is to be tried as a bigamist and punished as a felon! But to return; I do not so much object to the rectification proposed by Mr. Malthus, which is an addition of one sixth for these second and subsequent connexions, as to the source thus tainted, from whence it is derived.

(5) Turning, then, to less exceptionable and more recent documents, I find the information required is minutely given on official authority, as it respects the capital of France; and is, for two of the last years, as in the ensuing tables.

La grande facilité avec laquelle les habitans de la Prusse peuvent se degager du liens des mariages.-Les di

vorces sont très nombreux; 1 sur 37 mariages.-Bullet. Univers. Géog. et Statis. t. v. p. 67.

TABLE XXVI.

SHEWING THE FIRST AND SUBSEQUENT MARRIAGES IN PARIS, IN THE YEARS 1826 AND 1827.

1826.

Marriages in Paris; 7,959 couples, 15,918 persons.

Marriages in Paris; 7,754 couples, 15,508 persons.

(6) The results these tables present are highly confirmatory of each other, as are similar ones which I might likewise quote, were it necessary. In Paris, then, very uniformly, nearly one-tenth of the persons marrying, including both sexes, have been previously married; and distinguishing the sexes of these remarriages, those in which the males had been remarried, were not quite an eighth of the whole number of weddings; those, in which the females were similarly circumstanced, not quite one-thirteenth. But the number of the second and subsequent marriages, compared with the first ones of each sex respectively, is, as it regards the males, nearly one-seventh; the females, one in between a twelfth and thirteenth.

(7) Such are the various proportions which the second and third marriages form in the city of Paris; but my impression is, that the whole number of such connexions would be proportionably smaller in the departments than in the metropolis; and again, that it would be still less in England than in either, owing to the superior longevity of the latter country, and especially of its females, which circumstances, however, may perhaps be at any rate balanced by some difference in the comparative habits of the two countries, in relation to matrimony. No documents, at least none of which I am aware, exist, enabling us to determine this point as it regards the great mass of the community. In a very large town', where the number of the marriages, on the average of ten years, calculated on the mean amount of the population during the same term, was as high as 1 in 98, and indicated, therefore, a considerable influx of marriageable

1 Leeds. Average annual number of marriages, 1810 to 1820-744.5. Mean population, 73,165. Total number of

marriages in 1828, 1074; in which number there were 983 spinsters, and 91 widows.