[246-6]Higher civilization, indeed, instead of leading to higher vitality, may lead to immoderate toil and immoderate enjoyment. (Schäffle, in the D. Vierteljahrsschrift, April, 1862, 340.)Engelsays that, in general, life is more intense in our day, and hence leads to a more rapid exhaustion of individual life-force. (Preuss. Statist. Ztschr., 1862, 53.) According to English experience of the well-fed classes, those have the greatest duration of life who otherwise live in modest circumstances. Thus, for instance, clergymen thirty years of age have still an average expectation of life of 39.49 years; members of the learned professions, 38.86; country gentlemen, 40.22; members of the aristocracy, 37.31; princes of the blood, only 34.04; sovereigns, only 27.16 (Statist. Journal, 1859, 356 ff.); while agricultural laborers, who have sufficient means and intelligence to participate in the so-called friendly societies, have an expectation of life of 40.6 years after their thirtieth year. (Neison, loc. cit.) On the whole, it seems to be in harmony with the democratic leveling tendencies of our own age, that the better care of children and of the sick has lengthened short lives, and that the unrest of the times has shortened the long lives, although the level of the general average continually rises, notwithstanding. Thus, in Geneva, the proportion of those who outlived their thirtieth year was: in the 16th century, after 1549, 29.87; in the 17th century, 37.29; in the 18th century, 49.39; in the 19th century, until 1833, 58.85 per cent. of the number of births. On the other hand, the expectation of life of those who had attained their 80th year, was in these four centuries respectively 6.22, 5.87, 4.40 and 3.84 years. (Mallet, l. c., and Statist. Journal, 1851, 316 ff.) In keeping with this is, that according toGuy'sresearches, the average duration of life of the English peerage and baronetage was, in 1500-1550, 71.27 years; 1550-1600, 68.25 years; 1600-1650, 63.95 years; 1650-1700, 62.40 years; 1700-1745, 64.13 years. (Statist. Journal, 1845, 74.) However, we may most directly infer a favorable condition of things from the diminished mortality of children, for the reason that this, far more directly than the mortality of adults, is conditioned by the quality of food. The younger a child is, the more exclusively is its life-force the product of these two factors: the physical constitution of its parents and the care bestowed upon it. CompareF. J. Neumann, Die Gestaltung der mittleren Lebensdauer in Preussen, 1865, 26 ff. In Prussia, in 1751-60, only 312 in 1,000 outlived their tenth year; in 1861-70, 633 in 1,000. Yet, since 1856, the mortality of children has again begun to increase. (Knapp, Mittheilungen des Statist. Bureaus, VIII, p. 8.)
[246-7]Duvillard, Analyse ou Tableau de l'Influence da la petite Vérole, 1806, is of opinion that before vaccination only 4 per cent. of those over 30 years of age were spared by the small-pox; that two-thirds of all new-born children were attacked by the disease sooner or later, and that from one-eighth to one-seventh of those attacked died; and of small children even one-third. Hence, in many countries, the average duration of life was increased 3½ years by reason of vaccination. In London, between 1770 and 1779, of 1,000 deaths, 102 were caused by the small-pox; in from 1830 to 1836, only 25 in 1,000. (Porter, Progress of the Nation, I, 1, 39.) In Berlin, between 1792 and 1801, 4,999 persons died of the small-pox; between 1812 and 1822, only 555. (Casper.) That this is really a consequence of vaccination is proved by the facts of the Chemnitz small-pox epidemic of 1870-71, during which, in four of the streets principally visited by it, 9 per cent. were taken ill. Of 4,375 persons who had been vaccinated, 2.12 per cent. were attacked; of 644 who were not vaccinated, 54.38 per cent. Of those attacked, 2.1 per cent. of the former and 11.3 per cent. of the latter died. (Leipzig Tageblatt, 5 Mai, 1871.)
[246-8]Among the earliest institutions of medical police are the following: the Swedish Collegium medicum under Charles XI; the Prussian, 1724; the Danish, 1740; the quarantine law of Louis XIV., of 1683; the Parisian bureau of nurses, 1715; lying-in establishments since 1728; French institutions for the saving of drowned persons, 1740; English institutions for the saving of persons in cases of apparent death, 1744; bathing largely promoted by government since the eighteenth century; prohibition by Maria Theresa of burial in churches and of locating cemeteries too near dwelling houses, in 1778. EvenThomasius, De Jure Principum circa Sepultur., § 8, had advised this; and, in Italy,Fr. Patricius, De Inst. Republ. V, 10. On ancient medical police, seePylsRepertorium für öffentliche und gerichtliche Arzneiwissenschaft, II 167, ff. III, 1 ff.
[246-9]In France, the number of deaths in the cheap years, 1816 and 1819, amounted to an average of 755,877; of the dear years, 1817 and 1818, to an average of 750,065. (Ann. d'Economie politique, 1847, 333.) Thus, the same scarcity in Pomerania increased its otherwise smaller mortality relatively less than in Posen. (Hildebrand'sJahrbb. 1872, I, 292.) It is a good sign that in Altenburg, between 1835 and 1864, the variation in the price of corn had no influence on its mortality, although the number of marriages and of births was conditioned by it. (v. ScheelinHildebrand'sJahrbb., 1866, I, 161 ff.)
[246-10]Sir W. Petty, Several Essays, 31 seq. Great regularity of epidemics in the tropical world:Humboldt, N. Espagne, II, 5. The great plague in the middle of the 14th century is said to have destroyed 2/3 of the population of Norway, of Upland, 5/6; in the mountain districts of Wermeland only 1 boy and 2 girls were left. (Geijer, Schwed. Gesch., I, 186.) According toSismondi, Gesch. der Italien. Republiken, VI, 27, 3/5 of the whole population of Europe died at that time. How the cholera would have raged among our forefathers in the middle ages! Certainly, as it does now in the East Indies; since, when of those really attacked by the disease among ourselves so many die, we cannot attribute our small number of deaths from cholera to the smaller intensity of the disease or to the greater skill of our doctors, but chiefly to the better nourishment of our people, to their better dwellings and greater cleanliness. CompareHeberden, On the Increase and Decrease of Disease, 1801.
[246-11]Bernouilli, Populationistik, 363, seq. Whether, on this account, we can infer the increased health of the people, is very much doubted by the agedlaudatores temporis acti. They would have us believe that it is possible that the prolongation of the average of human life is to be explained by taking into account the case of numerous valetudinarians who formerly died early, but who arenowpreserved to drag out a miserable existence. The relative number of those who have died of old age did not noticeably increase between 1816 and 1860 either in Berlin or in the Prussian state. (Engel, Zeitschr., 1862, 222.) Compare, per contra,Marx, Ueber die Abnahme der Krankheiten durch die Zunahme der Civilization: transactions of the Göttinger Gesellschaft[TN 82]der Wissenschaften, 1842—44,43, ff. The extreme limit of the decrease of mortality, where there are no other causes of death but inevitable weakness of childhood and age,J. G. Hoffmannthinks would be one death per annum for every 52-53 living, andWappäus, one in 57-58. (Allg. Bevölkerungstatistik, I, 231, 340); (Schäffle, System, I, 571); according to Capeland observations, one for every fifty.
[246-12]This much, however, is clear, that the life insurance companies of the present day cannot rely on the calculations made in earlier stages of civilization; onSüssmilch's, for instance; and just as little on those of the old Romans in L. Digest. ad Leg. Falcidiam. CompareSchmelzer, De Probabilitate Vitae ejusque Usu forensi, 1788.
SECTION CCXLVII.
HISTORY OF POPULATION.—NUMBER OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
There is found to be in most states, where a decrease in mortality has been observed, a diminished number of births likewise.[247-1]This, indeed, happens necessarily only in the case in which the means of subsistence either do not increase at all, or in a less degree than mortality has decreased. Thus, towardsthe end of the 18th century, Norway was the country where the increase and decrease of the population were most remarkable for their smallness. There was only one death between 1775 and 1784 for every 48 living persons; but, at the same time, only one marriage for every 130 living.[247-2]The organization of labor was so little developed among the Norwegians, especially in the absence of important cities, the industries of which might have been able to absorb the surplus population, that almost every one of its inhabitants was in a condition to calculate in advance whether or not he would have enough to support a family. A person born in the country remained generally in his native village all his life. To found a family he had either to own a peasant's estate himself or wait until one of the day laborer's huts (Kathe), of which there were several attached to each such estate, was vacant. A too large family would certainly have died of hunger in the winter time. The clear sober sense of the people recognized this fact, and all the farm houses of the peasants were without any appreciable injury to morality filled with unmarried servants of both sexes who were, indeed, supplied with clothes and food but who at the same time were indolent and incapable of advancement.[247-3]Where a nation's economy is rapidly advancing, there is no necessity why the most natural and when properly directed the most beneficent human impulse should be sacrificed to a higher average duration of life. But if this must be, when the distribution of the national resources is pretty nearly equal, it isnot so much the number of marriages as the average fruitfulness of marriages that will diminish; that is as many persons as before may enter the married state but most of them are obliged either to postpone doing so until a later age, which places a greater interval between generation and generation, and causes the number of those living at any one time to decrease; or they cease to procreate children at an earlier period in their married life. The latter is found especially in France.[247-4][247-5]But, on the other hand, where the distribution of the national resources is very unequal, the rich may afterwards as well as before continue to follow out their inclination to marry at as early a day and age as they wish; but the less fortunate must remain unmarried through life. Here, therefore, the average number of children to a marriage does not diminish; but the aggregate number of marriages does.[247-6]If the relative frequency of marriages in most European countries has diminished during the last century, the cause has been in part directly the long duration of life of married couples. Hence, we are not always warranted in consequence, to infer a diminished number of existing marriages.[247-7]
In many countries, it has been recently observed that the average number of persons to a family is a decreasing one. Thus for, instance, in 1840, in Holland, there were to everyhundred families 497 persons, in 1850, only 481; in Saxony, in 1832, 460; in 1840, only 443; in Bavaria, in 1827, 480, in 1846, only 448. In cities also the average size of families is usually smaller than in the country.[247-8]This is intimately connected with this other fact that in the higher stages of civilization a larger number of independent households consists of single persons in contradistinction to married couples.[247-9][247-10]
[247-1]In France there was one child born alive,
[247-2]Malthus, Principle of Population, II, ch. 1. In Denmark, at the same time, 1 in 37 and 114. (Thaarup, Dänische Statistik., II, 1, 4.)
[247-3]In modern times, the intellectual and legal conditions which existed in Norway have been loosened to a great extent, and population in that country has, in consequence, made rapid advances. In 1769 the population was only 723,000; in 1855, it was 1,490,000. But the above customs for the most part continue still. Between 1831 and 1835, there was one marriage a year for every 138 living persons. The relative number of marriages is smaller than before. In 1769, there were, in every 1,000,376 married persons; in 1801, 347; in 1825, 345; in 1835, 322. In 1805, there were only 63 illegitimate births to every 1,000 births; in 1835, the proportion was 71.5 in every 1,000. (Blom, Statistik Con N., II, 168, 173.)
[247-4]In England, there were, in 1838-47, of every 1,000 contracting marriage, 94 who had not yet completed their 21st year; in Belgium, 1840-50, only 54; but the famine year, 1846-47, noticeably lowered the relative number of minors in both countries. There were married—
Column title codeA - In Belgium 1841-50.B - In the purely Flemish provinces.C - In the purely Wallonic provinces.D - Sweden. 1831-35.
ABCDper 1,000per 1,000per 1,000Before their 21st year563274⎧359 per 1,000 males.From 22 to 25 years219181259⎩463 per 1,000 females.From 26 to 35 years503511490458 males, 387 females, per 1,000.From 36 to 45 years161191129⎧183 per 1,000 males.After their 45th year617548⎩150 per 1,000 females.
But it must not be overlooked here, that the Flemish provinces of Belgium had been for a long time in a sad economic condition. (Horn, Studien, I, 75 ff.) No less characteristic of the well-being of a people and their providence in entering into the married state is the relative age at which they contract marriage. If we divide ages into four classes (up to the 30th year, between 31 and 45, between 46 and 60, and after 60), we find, for instance, that from 1841 to 1845, there were in West Flanders 585 per 1,000 marriages between persons of the same age-class, 305 in which the husband, and 110 in which the wife belonged to an older class; in Namur, on the other hand, 683, 234 and 83. In dear years, the relative number of marriages between persons belonging to different age-classes, and the relative difference in age of parties to the marriage contract increases.
And so, the frequency of second marriages of widows and widowers is no favorable symptom of the facility of founding a family. Naturally every woman prefers a man who was never married before to a widower; and every man a maiden to a widow; but where there is a want of room to establish a new household, the possession of such one by a widower may readily preponderate over all counter considerations. Thus, for instance, in the Flemish provinces of Belgium, of 1,000 widowers, from 365 to 395 marry again; in the Wallonic, only from 293 to 308. Of 1,000 brides, 98 are widows in West Flanders, and in Namur, 41. A similar proportion in Bavaria between the Palatinate and the hither-districts. (Hermann, Bewegung der Bevölkerung in Bayern, p. 14.) The less the frequency of marriage in general, the greater is the relative probability of second marriage for widows and widowers; and hence, in years of scarcity, the latter relatively increase. (Horn, Studien, I, 201 ff.) Sometimes this increase is absolute: in Austria, during the cheap year 1852, there were 231,900 marriages between persons never before married, and 85,000 in which at least one of the contracting parties had been married before. On the other hand, during the dear year 1855, there were only 156,000 of the former and 89,000 of the latter. Something analogous, observed in antiquity. (Pausan., II, 21, 8; X, 38, 6;Propert., II, 11, 36.)Tacitus, Germ., 19, describes the moral feelings of the ancient Germans as averse to the second marriage of widows, and he apparently approves it.
[247-5]In 19 European countries, with an aggregate population of 121,000,000, the number of the married amounted to an average of 34.88 per cent. of the whole population. France is at the head with 38.94 per cent. (1866), even 40.5. In these countries, of all adults, there is a percentage of 65.98 who marry. France is here, also, at the head, with a percentage of 73.58. And the number of the unmarried has continually decreased in post-revolutionary France. In 1806, there were only 35.84 per cent. of the population married. (Wappäus, A. Bevölk erungsstatistik, II, 219, 223, 229.) In relation also to the frequency of first marriages and of marriage at the proper age, France is the best situated country. (Haushofer, Lehr- und Handbuch der Statistik, 40 ff.) But at the same time, in what concerns the fruitfulness of marriage, it is the farthest behind; and since 1780 prolificacy has continually decreased there. Thus, 1800-1815, 3.93 legitimate children to a marriage; 1856-60, only 3.03; 1861-6, again 3.08. (Legoytin the Journal des Econ. Oct. 1870, 28.) How little this depends upon physiological causes may be inferred from the fact thatStrabocommends the women of the Gallic race for their peculiar adaptability to bearing and rearing children. (IV, 178, 196.) The "prudential checks" must play a principal part in producing a low birth rate. (Statist. Journal, 1866, 262), as we find in France
InYearly per 100 inhabitants.Women who marry beforetheir 25th year.Marriages.Births.per cent.Brittany,7.029.842.7Adour,6.925.047.3Lower Garonne,8.322.059.7Upper Seine8.023.760.0
That, however, the shorter duration and smaller fruitfulness of marriage by no means necessarily accompany one another, France also proves, since it possesses the longer average duration of marriage: 26.4 years against 20.7 in Prussia. (Wappäus, II, 311, 315.)
[247-6]The proportion of the married to the whole population declined in Prussia from 35.09 in 1816, to 33.09 per cent. in 1852; in Sweden, from 36.41 in 1751 to 32.59 per cent. in 1855; in Norway, from 37.60 per cent. in 1769 to 32.21 per cent. in 1855; in Saxony, from 35.52 per cent. in 1834, to 34.98 per cent. in 1849. (Wappäus, II, 229.) If all who are at least 20 years of age be considered competent to marry, there are of every 1,000 thus competent in Belgium, 520 actually married; in the Flemish provinces alone, 489; in the most favorably situated Wallonic, 554. (Horn, Bevölk. Studien, I, 139 ff.) In Rome, under Augustus, the proportion was much less satisfactory. In the higher classes, a large majority did not marry at all. (Dio. Cass., I, VI, 1.)
[247-7]In Halle, in 1700, there was one marriage for every 77 of the population; in 1715, for every 99; in 1735, for every 140; in 1755, for every 167. In Leipzig, in 1620, there was one for every 82; 1741-1756, for every 118; 1868, for every 92.8. In Augsburg, 1510, one in 86; in 1610, in 108; in 1660, in every 101; in 1750, in every 123. The provinces of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Cleve, Mark, Munden, Brandenburg, Pomerania[TN 83]and Prussia had, about the end of the seventeenth century, one marriage per annum for every 76-95 of the population; the Prussian monarchy, 1822-1828, one marriage for every 109-121. CompareSussmilchGöttl. Ordnung, I., 131, ff.,SchubertStaatskunde des preuss. Staates I., 364. In France, 1801-1805, there was one marriage per annum in every 137 living; in 1821-5, for every 129; in 1831-35, for every 127; in 1842-51, for every 125.39; in 1860, for every 124.7.
[247-8]In Prussia, in 1849, there were in every one hundred families in the cities, 492 individuals; in the country, 512. In Belgium, in 1846, 459 and 497 respectively. (Horn, Bevölk. Studien, I, 88, ff.) In France, in 1853, in the cities, 358; in Paris alone, 299. In the Zollverein, the number of individuals in a family increased in 1852-55, 5.81 per cent.; the population only 3.02 per cent.; the population of those over fourteen years of age, by 4.41 per cent.; of minors by 1.02 per cent. Only in Saxony and the cities of Hanover was the reverse the case. (v. Viebahn, II, 278, seq.)
[247-9]Thus, for instance, in Belgium, for every 100 households, there are 74 marriages; in the cities of Belgium, 70; in the Belgian country parishes, 75; in Prussia in 1849, 84. (Horn, I, 93 seq.) It is estimated that in Prussia, only 3 per cent. of the adult population live outside of the family. (Viebahn, II, 273.)
[247-10]It is strange thatSüssmilch, Göttl. Ordnung, I, § 13, considers mortality an unalterable law, while he fully recognizes the social grounds which caused the frequency and prolificacy of marriages to vary (I, § 56, 99).
SECTION CCXLVIII.
HISTORY OF POPULATION.—NUMBER OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
So far as the mere number of the population is concerned, it is obviously a matter of indifference whether there are annually 1,000 births and 800 deaths, or 2,000 births and 1,800 deaths. But we see in the former an element of higher civilization,[248-1]especially, on account of the conditions which determine it. It can occur only where even the most numerous, that is the lower class, feel other wants than those of the mere means of existence and of the satisfaction of the sexual instinct: wants, duties which probably could not be satisfied in a state of marriagethoughtlessly entered into; where the virtues both of foresight and self-control are very generally practiced.
And then let us consider the consequences. The efficacy of the repressive hinderances to over-population either consists in immoral acts or easily leads to immorality. Until a "surplus" child has died, what a series of troubles for good parents, and what a chain of evil deeds for bad ones, to say nothing of the poor child itself.
Further, every man, no matter how short or long his life, requires a large advance of capital and trouble which he has later to return to society through the activity of his riper years. If he dies before his maturity, this advance has been made in vain. The more, therefore, the population of a country, in order to maintain itself within the bounds of its field of food, has to calculate on the death of children, the greater is this loss.[248-2]Hence, from a national-economic point of view, it is to be considered a great advance, that in England in 1780, there was one death among its people under 20 years of age in every 76 of the population, in 1801, in every 96, in 1830, in every 124, in 1833, one only in every 137. (Porter.) Lastly, the longer the average duration of life of a child the greater, other circumstances remaining the same, the number of grown people as compared with that of the children; but grown people are,as a rule, independent, capable of self-defense, economically productive, competent to discharge all the rights and duties of citizenship, while children are dependent, incapable of self-defense, unproductive, immature. Only he who knows the relative numbers of the different age-classes of a nation can draw fruitful conclusions from the data per capita relating to taxation, from the statistics of crime, suicides, illegitimate births, of school-children, etc., or judge correctly of a locality's military contingent.[248-3][248-4]Here, indeed, it should not be overlooked that in the highest age-classes, human beings return in many respects to the helplessness of childhood. Yet, as a rule, to reach a good old age is generally considered a personal good fortune; and the existence of a great many aged persons in a country, if not in itself an advantageous element in its economy, may, nevertheless, be called a pleasing symptom.[248-5]On an average there is only one person over sixty to every twelve under fifteen years of age. (J. G. Hoffmann.) We may, hence, readily measure what an advantage France possesses in this, that in 1861, in every 1,000 inhabitants, only 273 were under fifteen years of age, 524 between sixteen and fifty, the most vigorous years of life, and 203 over fifty years old. The average age of the French population was 31.06 years against 27.22 in Sardinia and 25.32 in Ireland.
However, a positively unfavorable conclusion from a relatively large number of children in a nation should not be drawn except in the case of a people the limits of whose field of food cannot be extended. (§ 239.) Where the nation's economy has a rapid growth, as for instance in young colonies, the comparatively easy rearing of children which there obtains, without any corresponding mortality, is not so much considered a burthen[248-6]as a symptom of their good fortune andeven a positive good.[248-7]On the other hand, of the Belgian provinces, for instance, suffering Flanders had relatively the smallest number of children, because it had the largest child-mortality.[248-8]
Almost all the signs which, according to the above paragraphs, distinguish a higher stage of civilization from a lower, may be shown within the limits of the same age and nation to characterize the upper classes as compared with the lower. We may even claim that the greater foresight and self-control of the former in the matter of marriage and in the procreation of children, since the abolition of the greater number of legal advantages of class, are by far the most important of the elements constituting their superiority over the latter. The word proletariat, fromproles, means first of all, having many children (Vielkinderei)!
[248-1]J. Möserdid not even dream of this. Patr. Phant., I, 15.
[248-2]Rossi, Cours d'Economie politique, I, 371, estimates the cost of bringing up a child to its 16th year at a minimum of 1,000 francs. Hence, a country with 1,000,000 births annually, in which only 50 per cent. reach that age, would lose 500,000,000 francs per annum. However, over one-third of the children in question die in the first years of childhood, and the rest do not reach on an average their 16th year, but die between the age of 7 and 8:Bernouilli, Populationistik, 259.Engelestimates Saxony's "man-capital" at 4 times the value of all the land in the country, and at 10 times the value of all movable property. (Sächs., Statist. Zeitschr., 1855, No. 9. Preuss. Statist. Zeitschr., 1861, 324.) One of the chief advocates of the view that there is an investment of capital in every child isChadwickin the opening address delivered by him before an English learned society at Cambridge: Statist. Journal, Dec., 1862. Lancashire alone pays a penalty per annum for preventable deaths of £4,000,000, for the funeral and medical expenses; to say nothing of the capital lost (506).
[248-3]Bernouilli, Populationistik, 51 ff.Quetelet, Recherches statist. sur le Royaume des Pays-Bas, 1827, 1, 9, and Du Système social, 1848, 176 ff., specially called attention to the important differences in this relation, between the productive and unproductive years of life. Thus it should not be forgotten, when reading of the greater mortality of the poor quarters of Paris, that strangers who are for the most part in the vigorous years of life, live there least of all.
[248-4]In Russia, it seems that only 36 per cent. of all those born outlive their 20th year; in England, 55 per cent. (Porter, Progress, ch. I, 29.) The Russian peasants are said to have from 10 to 12 children, only about one-third of whom grow to maturity, (v. Haxthausen, I, 128.) In the United States, the population was in 1820 divided into two nearly equal parts as to age, the 16th year of age forming the dividing point; in England the same was the case, only the dividing point was 20 years of age. (Tucker, Progress of the United States, 16, 63.)
[248-5]There were in
Years.From 0 to 15years of age.From 16 to 50years of age.Over 50years of age.Per 1,000 of the pop.Per 1,000 of the pop.Per 1,000 of the pop.Belgium,1846323509168Prussia,1849370504126Great Britain,1851354504142Holland,1849333509158Saxony,1840339505156Sweden,1850328511161
In Great Britain, the census of 1851 gave 596,030 persons over 70 years of age; 9,847, over 90; 2,038, over 95; 319, over 100 years of age. (Athen., 12 Aug., 1854.) In France, in 1851, there were 1,319,960 persons seventy years of age and over. In the United States the population of—
Per English square mile.Relative number of children under ten years.1800184018001840per cent.per cent.New England,19.234.863.551.1The Middle States,15.343.670.755.7The Southern States,18.915.973.067.8The Southwestern States,11.313.777.675.5The Northwestern States,12.325.584.973.8
In the whole Union, in 1830, the age classes up to 20 years embraced 56.12 per cent. of the population; in 1840, 54.62 per cent; in 1850, 51.85 per cent. CompareHorn, Bevölk. Studien, I, 126;Wappäus, A. Bevölk. Stat., II, 44, 125 ff., 88;Tucker, Progress of the United States, 105.
[248-6]AsWappäussays that in America an equal number of adults must work for at least a third larger number of children than in Europe: "a much more unfavorable situation, so far as production-force is concerned." (A. Bevölk. St., II, 44.)
[248-7]Horn, I, 127 ff. The Becoming is not only more pleasant than the Having become, but it may even stand higher in so far as the latter consists only in being resigned to further development.
[248-8]Les mendiants sont dans le cas des peuples naissantsetc.Montesquieu, E. der Lois, LXXIII, 11. In England and Wales in 1851-60, there died yearly before their sixth year, 7.24 per cent. of all male children born, but in the families of peers, only 2.22 per cent. (Stat. Journal, Sept., 1865.) If we grade the quarters of the city of Berlin according to the well-being of their inhabitants, we find that in the lower, the number of married men between 18 and 25 years is successively greater[TN 84]1.1, 1.4, 2.4 and 3.4 per cent. (Schwabe, Völkszählung von, 1871, 24.)
SECTION CCXLIX.
HISTORY OF POPULATION.—IN PERIODS OF DECLINE.
Nations involved in political and religious decline are wont to lose the moral foundation of the situation last described. Here, therefore, again, both the repressive (which are almost always immoral) tendencies counter to over-population, and the viciously preventive occupy the most prominent place.We may most completely observe this spectacle among the heathen nations of later antiquity. But, unfortunately, even among modern nations, we find some analogies to the ancient, to which the political economist may point with the finger of warning. "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." This universally applicable truth explains the fact that all successive acts of immorality, the more frequently they occur the less severely are they branded by public opinion.
A. We are not warranted, from the relative[249-1]number of illegitimate births, to draw too direct an inference in relation to the morality of a people. Where, for instance, as in the kingdom of Saxony, the annual frequency of marriage was 0.017 of the population, every illegitimate birth bears evidence of a greater absence of self control than in Bavaria, where, on every one thousand living, there were only thirteen marriages a year.[249-2]In many quarters, where the economic relations are very stable, and where peasant estates (geschlossene Bauergüter) are subject to a species of entailing, where consequently the son can engage in marriage only after the death of the father, illegitimate children are in great part legitimatized by subsequent marriage at a later time, and meanwhile brought up in the family of the mother like legitimate children.[249-3]Evidentlythe guilty inconstancy creative of ephemeralliaisons, and the neglect of the children born of them, do not here produce the sad effects which they are wont to in the large cities, where illegitimate relations are made and dissolved with shocking rapidity. However, births are seldom heard of in the case of ruined debauchees.
At the same time, the frequency of illegitimate births is always an evidence that the rightful founding of a home is made difficult[249-4]by the economic condition of the police provisionsof a country; and that the moral force of the people does not suffice to resist the temptation[249-5]which such condition and provisions suppose. In the latter respect, this phenomenon may be considered, not only as a symptom but also as a cause: since bastards are generally very badly brought up. A large parthenic population is always an element of great danger in a state.[249-6]The frequency of illegitimate children must, however, be designated as a tendency counter to over-population, for the reason that still-born births and early deaths occur much more frequently among them than among legitimate children.[249-7]
B. The trade of the women of the town is indeed an exceedingly old one.[249-8]But this evil assumes large dimensions only where a large class of men and women have no prospect to marry at all, or only late in life; especially when, at the same time, families have become unaccustomed to keeping together for life.[249-9]Prostitution may be considered a counterpoise to over-population, not only because of the polyandry it involves, but also of the infecundity of its victims.[249-10]Even thediseases which it propagates are not without importance in this regard. The love of change and impatience of restraint which it produces keeps many a man who, economically considered, might very well engage in marriage, in a state of criminal celibacy.[249-11]This moral poisoning of the nation's blood is more pernicious in proportion as vice is decked with the charms of intellect,[249-12]and reflected in literature and art.[249-13]When Phryne had wealth enough to project the rebuilding of Thebes, and boldness enough to ask to be allowed to put this inscription on its walls: "Alexander destroyed them, but Phryne, the hetæra, rebuilt them," not only the dignity but the nationality of Greece was gasping for the last time for breath.[249-14][249-15]
C. I know no sadder picture in all history than the wide diffusion and even sovereignty which unnatural vice possessed among the declining nations of antiquity. Egypt and Syria seem to have been the original seat of this moral plague.[249-16]In Greece, there was a time noted for the brilliancy of its literature and art, when the poetic fancy, in its dreams of love, pictured to itself only the forms of beautiful boys; and that this love was generally an impure one, there is, unfortunately, no room to doubt.[249-17]In more ancient Rome, it was most severely punished;[249-18]but afterwards, again, it seemed reprehensible to a Tibullus only when it was bought with money.[249-19]Even under Cæsar, a censor could threaten an ædile with a charge of sodomy; the latter reciprocate the threat, and think it witty to invite a man like Cicero to assist at the curious argument which such a case might call forth, before a pretor with a reputation of being guilty of the same vice.[249-20]When the horrible deeds of which Tiberius was guilty are known, we cannot consider them capable of exaggeration. But Tiberius, at least, sought secrecy, while Nero, Commodus and Heliogabalus felt a special delight in the publicity of their shame.[249-21][249-22][249-23]
[249-1]The ratio between the number of illegitimate births and legitimate, so generally brought forward, leads to no correct conclusions whatever. The ratio between the number of illegitimate births, on the other hand, and marriageable men and women, especially of those who are yet unmarried, may afford a basis for valuable inferences. CompareHoffmann, in the Preuss. Staatszeitung, 1837, No. 18. In Prussia, nearly 75 per cent. of all women between 17 and 75 are married. (v. Viehbahn, II, 189.)
[249-2]In Bavaria, not only was the frequency of marriage surprisingly small (one marriage a year in every 151.59 inhabitants, while the average in 14 European countries was 1 in 123.9), but marriage was there contracted at a surprisingly advanced age. Of 10,000 of both sexes engaging in marriage, there were, in Bavaria, only 2,081 25 years of age and less, while in England, there were 5,528. CompareWappäus, A. Bevölk. Statistik, II, 241, 270.
[249-3]In Oldenburg, it is estimated that 48 per cent. of its illegitimate children are legitimatizedper subsequens matrimonium(Rau-HanssenArchiv. N. F., I, 7), in the agricultural districts of Nassau even 70 per cent. (Faucher'sVierteljahrsschrift, 1864, II, 19), in the whole of Bavaria, 15 per cent.; in the Palatinate, 29.7 per cent. (Hermann, Bewegung der Bevolkerung, 20); in the Kingdom of Saxony, 1865, at least 21 per cent. (Statist. Zeitschr. 1868, 184.) In France 10 per cent. of the marriages contracted legitimatize children. (Legoyt, Stat. Comp., 501); in Saxony, 1865, 11.7; in Bavaria up to 1852, about 1/8 of the marriages belonged to this category; 1858-61, 1/7; 1861-64, nearly 1/6. Compare Heft XII, of the official statistics. In the manufacturing towns of France, especially the border ones, a large number of the children of female operatives and of males having their domicile in foreign parts, are legitimatized[TN 85]by marriage: thus in Mühlhausen, 23.7 per cent. Recherches statist. sur M., 1843, 62.
[249-4]In Mecklenburg-Schwerin there was one marriage