the mouth of the vault. He was followed by all the chief officers of the household-namely, the lord great master; the lord chamberlain of the household, the treasurer, comptroller, gentleman porter, and the four gentlemen ushers. These personages carried their staves and rods, and ranged themselves around the aperture.

Earth being brought to the bishop, he cast it into the sepulchre, and when he had pronounced the words "Pulvis pulveri, cinis cineri," Lord Saint John broke his staff over his head, exclaiming dolefully, as he threw the pieces into the vault, "Farewell to the greatest of kings!"

The Earl of Arundel next broke his staff, crying out with a lamentable voice, "Farewell to the wisest and justest prince in Christendom, who had ever England's honour at heart!"

Sir John Gage next shivered his staff, exclaiming in accents of unaffected grief, "Farewell to the best of masters, albeit the sternest!"

Like sorrowful exclamations were uttered by William Knevet, the gentleman porter, and the gentlemen ushers, as they broke their rods.

There was something inexpressibly affecting in the destruction of these symbols of office, and the casting the fragments into the pit. Profound silence prevailed during the ceremony, but at its close a universal sigh broke from the assemblage.

At this moment, Sir Thomas Seymour, who was standing in a part of the choir commanding the queen's closet, looked up. Catherine had covered her face with her handkerchief, and was evidently weeping.

De profundis was then solemnly chanted, amidst which the chasm was closed.

At the conclusion of the hymn, Garter, attended by Clarencieux, Carlisle, and Norroy, advanced to the centre of the choir, and with a loud voice proclaimed, "Almighty God of his infinite goodness give good life and long to the most high and mighty Prince, our sovereign Lord, Edward VI., by the grace of God King of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and in earth, under God, of the Church of England and Ireland, the supreme Head and Sovereign, of the most noble Order of the Garter."

This proclamation made, he shouted lustily, "Vive le noble roi Edouard!" All the assemblage joined in the shout, which was thrice repeated.

Then the trumpeters stationed in the rood-loft blew a loud and courageous blast, which resounded through the pile.

So ended the obsequies of the right high and puissant king Henry VIII.

Thus far the First Book.

POPULATION AND TRADE IN FRANCE.

BY FREDERICK MARSHALL.

No I.-POPULATION.

years.

The last census

THE population of France is counted five every was made in July, 1856; there will, therefore, be another this year. There is also an annual return, published by the ministry of the interior, of the number of births and deaths, but this return is always three or four years in arrear, and 1857 is at present the latest date to which it extends.

There are, therefore, no elements on which to base an examination of the movements of the population of France during the last three years; and this is the more to be regretted in the face of the results revealed by the last census, which showed, to the astonishment of Europe, that during the two years, 1854 and 1855, the whole population of France had actually diminished; that during the five years between 1851 and 1856 the total increase of number had amounted to only 257,736, which was at the rate of 0.14 per cent. per annum; and that during these same five years the population of 54 departments out of 86 had diminished together by 446,855, this number, plus the general increase of 257,736, constituting an augmentation of 704,591 in the other 32 departments, Paris alone gaining 300,000 thereof.

It is, however, evident that most of these remarkable results were principally due to accidental circumstances. The cholera, the Crimean war, and a famine, arrived successively during the five years in question, and it is fair to urge against the admission of the results of these five years, as an indication of the present normal movement of the population of France, that in 1856 the increase amounted to 117,099, and in 1857 to 81,924.

But still, whatever be the figures which the census of the present year will disclose, there remains the fact that since the commencement of the present century the annual rate of increase of the population of France has diminished two-thirds. The variation is not exactly perceptible in the returns of each successive year, which naturally present fluctuations in each direction, but the general result is, that whereas the average yearly augmentation was at the rate of 0.646 per cent. from 1801 to 1826, it was only 0.445 per cent. from 1836 to 1850, and 0.14 per cent. from 1851 to 1856, rising again, however, to 0.23 per cent. in 1857. The cause of this persistent diminution is as evident as the diminution itself, the falling off in the number of births is its sole source. For the ten years between 1776 and 1785, with a population of 24 millions, the annual average of births in France was 960,000, or 1 to 25 of the whole population; while in 1856, with a population of 36 millions, the births were only 950,000, and in 1857, 940,000, which is at the rate of 1 child to 37 inhabitants. Not only, therefore, is the average productiveness one-half less now than it was eighty years ago, but, which is more re

VOL. XLIX.

2 D

markable still, one-half more people actually generate now a smaller total number of children.

Whichever way the question is examined the same facts come out, the disproportion of course diminishing as the date of comparison becomes more recent. Calculating on the proportion between the numbers of annual marriages and legitimate births, it is found that in the ten years comprised between 1820 and 1830 the mean annual births were 3.64 to each marriage contracted; but in 1857, which may be admitted as a fair average year, the relation between the legitimate births and the marriages had fallen to the following ratio :

The productiveness of the marriages has, therefore, decreased from 3.64 to 2.94 per cent. during the last thirty years-more than one-fifth. Calculating, again, on the proportion of children to each family, it appears that in 1821 a child was born to every 5.8 families; but in 1857 there was only 1 child to 7.6 families, which means that only 2 families out of 15 now have a child annually, while the proportion was 2 out of 11 forty years ago; here the diminution is more than a quarter.

These differences of number are so considerable that they impress even those who have had an opportunity of appreciating the disposition of the French to shrink from excessive or improvident paternity. The reduction of production surpasses the estimate which a rough calculation of the probable consequences of this species of prudence would reasonably arrive at the fact that three families now produce fewer children than two did before the revolution would not be theoretically admitted even by those who know to what an extent the cautious French apply the saying, "Make the soup before you make the child."

:

And this diminution is the more striking because it has occurred simultaneously with a small but steady increase in the number of marriages. Bearing, therefore, in mind the admitted fact that nine-tenths of the births of every year result from marriages contracted during the two previous years, it follows that the more recent marriages are precisely those which present the greatest development of sterility.

It should, however, be remembered that diminishing production is not peculiar to France alone. The same tendency shows itself, but in a far less degree, in England and most of the other countries of Europe. Reproduction is everywhere less rapid, though varying in its rates of decrease in different localities. A comparison of the figures bearing on the subject suggests the idea that the greater the degree of civilisation attained, and the greater the density of the population, the fewer are the children produced. Whether this result arises from less favourable sanitary conditions (though the almost universal augmentation of the duration of life would seem to contradict this hypothesis), or whether, as is indisputably the case in France, it springs from voluntary sterility, the fact is general. England, notwithstanding its high civilisation and thick population, still produces annually 1 child to every 29 inhabitants, which is proportionately one-fourth more than France, and among the scantier inhabitants

of Russia and Prussia, and in the warm plains of Lombardy, the yearly rate of production remains 1 to 26. But though these rates are still so much superior to the figures just given for France, they are lower than they were a century ago; in every country in Europe reproduction is less rapid than it was.

This subject, however, involves so many considerations, it is so intermixed with all the problems of national health and morality, and a satisfactory explanation of it is so improbable, that it would not be useful to examine it further, especially as, in so far as France is concerned, the diminution in question may safely be assigned to its real cause, unwillingness to have children. Fortunately for France, the ratio between the augmentation of the duration of life and the diminution of production still remains rather more than compensating, and suffices to maintain, though in a scarcely perceptible degree, the general progress of number. The average duration of existence has risen since the revolution from 27 to 38 years, and it appears to be still advancing. It is not, therefore, to be feared that the diminution of the whole population which accidentally took place in 1854 and 1855, is likely to assume a permanent character for the moment, whatever may be the result hereafter.

The mean annual augmentation of 0.445 per cent., which took place during the fifteen years ending in 1850, was very unequally distributed over the surface of France. It was only 0.3 per cent. in the country, and it amounted to 1.6 per cent. in the towns; in both these figures the effect of the movement from the rural districts into the towns comes out strikingly. The towns, again, varied materially between themselves in their rate of increase; those on the coast gained as much as 24 per cent. per annum, while the six great garrison towns advanced 1.6 per cent., and the manufacturing towns 1.4 per cent.

These figures, which indicate the effects of migration, do not at all correspond with the increase of births over deaths in the same localities. In 1857 the proportions of this increase were:

which proves that the births are relatively one-half more numerous in the country than in the towns, though the real population of the towns, fed by importations from the country, advance proportionately five times faster than that of the rural districts. The relation necessarily varies in different years, but these rates are probably approximate averages. It is worthy of remark, that the superiority of births over deaths is three times greater in Paris than in the other towns of France, but this is partially explainable by the circumstance that a considerable number of women come to Paris from the provinces to be confined.

It has been already remarked that the feebleness of the general increase from 1851 to 1856, as well as the special diminution of the population in 1854 and 1855, are attributable to the consequences of the cholera, the Crimean war, and a famine, and that they can only be regarded as an accident independent of the present normal conditions of the subject. In 1856 the increase of births and marriages and the reduction of deaths, which, as Montesquieu first observed, seem to regularly follow every

period of special mortality, regained the ground lost during the two preceding years. This sudden recovery from the consequences of bad years seems to be a natural law, for since the establishment of regular returns in France, it has been observed after every sanitary crisis. For instance, the great cholera of 1832 added about 130,000 deaths to the total mortality of the preceding year, but in 1833 the births rose 31,797, and in 1834 48,304, while the marriages of these two years showed an increase of four and nine per cent. respectively on the average of the five preceding years.

The proportion of male to female births is generally as 105 to 100. In Paris and the towns there are 103 boys to 100 girls, and in the country 106 to 100. But if still-born children are included, the average is 106 boys to 100 girls. This relative augmentation proves that the greater mortality observable among male children attacks them even before their birth: 58 per cent. of the still-born children are males, and only 42 per cent. females. According to a Belgian table, 58 per cent. are born dead, 20 per cent. die during delivery, and the remaining 22 per cent. immediately after birth. As might be expected, the average of children still-born is higher in Paris, and in the towns generally, than in the country. The proportions are (relatively to the whole number of births), 6.52 per cent. in Paris, 5.55 in the other towns, and only 3.65 per cent. in the rural districts. There are, therefore, not only half as many more children produced in the country than in the towns, proportionately to the whole population of each, but the number born dead is about one-half less in the former than in the latter.

In

The general proportion of illegitimate children in France is 7.3 per cent. of the whole number. It is said to be the same in England. Austria, the proportion is 20 per cent.; and in Saxony, Bohemia, and Finland, 12 per cent. It falls to the minimum of 3 per cent. in Lombardy. But as all these latter figures are calculated on single years, they should be received with caution, as they may not represent exact averages. The proportions of natural children in France, applied also to the whole number of births, are 27 per cent. in Paris, 12 per cent. in the towns generally, and only 4.2 per cent. in the country. It must, however, be borne in mind that a certain number of country girls come into the towns to be confined in the public hospitals, and also, that as public opinion exercises a direct and powerful influence among the scanty inhabitants of the rural districts, a large proportion of children illegally begotten are legitimately born, because their parents marry in the interval between the two events under the pressure exercised by their families and friends. Of the illegitimate children born in the towns, about 30 per cent. are recognised and adopted by their parents, while in the country the proportion thus adopted is double-it rises to 60 per cent.: 6 per cent. of the whole number are regularly legitimised, and acquire all the rights of children lawfully begotten, by the application of an admirable provision of the French code, which permits the complete legitimation of children whose father and mother marry after their birth. It is worthy of note that 6 per cent. more boys than girls are recognised by their parents.

The heavy proportion of natural children in Paris is still inferior to that which exists in many other large towns: at Stockholm, Mayence,