In the seventeen counties of England in which there are from 100 to 177
people on the square mile...... 387
In the seventeen counties in which there are from 177 to 282 people on
the square mile. 389
The difference is small, but not smaller than differences which Mr.
Sadler has brought forward as proofs of his theory. We say, that
these English tables no more prove that fecundity increases with the
population than that it diminishes with the population. The thirty-four
counties which we have taken make up, at least, four-fifths of the
kingdom: and we see that, through those thirty-four counties, the
phenomena are directly opposed to Mr. Sadler’s principle. That in the
capital, and in great manufacturing towns, marriages are less prolific
than in the open country, we admit, and Mr. Malthus admits. But that any
condensation of the population, short of that which injures all physical
energies, will diminish the prolific powers of man, is, from these very
tables of Mr. Sadler, completely disproved.
It is scarcely worth while to proceed with instances, after proofs so
overwhelming as those which we have given. Yet we will show that Mr.
Sadler has formed his averages on the census of Prussia by an artifice
exactly similar to that which we have already exposed.
[Illustration: 0298]