Page:Principles of Political Economy Vol 1.djvu/383

Rh countries, that of France, from 1817 to 1827, is stated at $63/100$ per cent, that of England during a siiniliar decennial period being 1$6/10$ annually, and that of the United States nearly 3. According to the official returns as analysed by M. Legoyt, the increase of the population, which from 1801 to 1806 was at the rate of 1·28 per cent annually, averaged only 0·47 per cent from 1806 to 1831; from 1831 to 1836 it averaged 0·60 per cent; from 1836 to 1841, 0·41 percent, and from 1841 to 1846, 0·68 per cent. At the census of 1851 the rate of annual increase shown was only 1·08 per cent in the five years, or 0·21 annually; and at the census of 1856 only 0·71 per cent in five years, or 0·14 annually: so that, in the words of M. de Lavergne, "la population ne s'accroit presque plus en France." Even this slow increase is wholly the effect of a diminution of deaths; the number of births not increasing at all, while the proportion of the births to the population is constantly diminishing This slow growth of the numbers of the people, while