18.The term marriage in the text must be taken in a wide sense so as to include not only legal marriages， but all those informal unions which are sufficiently permanent in character to involve for several years at least the practical responsibilities of married life.They are often contracted at an early age， and not unfrequently lead up to legal marriages after the lapse of some years.For this reason the average age at marriage in the broad sense of the term， with which alone we are here concerned， is below the average age at legal marriage.The allowance to be made on this head for the whole of the working classes is probably considerable； but it is very much greater in the case of unskilled labourers than of any other class.The following statistics must be interpreted in the light of this remark， and of the fact that all English industrial statistics are vitiated by the want of sufficient care in the classification of the working classes in our official returns.The Registrar-General's forty-ninth Annual Report states that in certain selected districts the returns of marriages for 1884-5 were examined with the following results； the number after each occupation being the average age of bachelors in it at marriage， and the following number， in brackets， being the average age of spinsters who married men of that occupation： -- Miners 24.06 (22.46)； Textile hands 24.38 (23.43)； Shoemakers， Tailors 24.92 (24.31)； Artisans 25.35 (23.70)； Labourers 15.56 (23.66)； Commercial Clerks 16.15(24.43)； Shopkeepers， Shopmen 26.67 (24.22)； Farmers and sons 29.23 (26.91)； Professional and Independent Class 31.22 (26.40).
Dr Ogle， in the paper already referred to， shows that the marriage-rate is greatest generally in those parts of England in which the percentage of those women between 15 and 25 years of age who are industrially occupied is the greatest.This is no doubt due， as he suggests， partly to the willingness of men to have their money incomes supplemented by those of their wives；but it may be partly due also to an excess of women of a marriageable age in those districts.
19.Thus a visit to the valley Jachenau in the Bavarian Alps about 1880 found this custom still in full force.Aided by a great recent rise in the value of their woods， with regard to which they had pursued a farseeing policy， the inhabitants lived prosperously in large houses， the younger brothers and sisters acting as servants in their old homes or elsewhere.They were of a different race from the workpeople in the neighbouring valleys， who lived poor and hard lives， but seemed to think that the Jachenau purchased its material prosperity at too great a cost.
20.See e.g.Rogers， Six Centuries， pp.106-7.
21.The extreme prudence of peasant proprietors under stationary conditions was noticed by Malthus； see his account of Switzerland (Essay， Bk.II， ch.v).Adam Smith remarked that poor Highland women frequently had twenty children of whom not more than two reached maturity (Wealth of Nations， Bk.1， ch.VIII)； and the notion that want stimulated fertility was insisted on by Doubleday， True Law of Population.See also Sadler， Law of Population.Herbert Spencer seemed to think it probable that the progress of civilization will of itself hold the growth of population completely in check.But Malthus' remark， that the reproductive power is less in barbarous than in civilized races， has been extended by Darwin to the animal and vegetable kingdom generally.
Mr Charles Booth (Statistical Journal， 1893) has divided London into 27 districts (chiefly Registration districts)； and arranged them in order of poverty， of overcrowding， of high birth-rate and of high death-rate.He finds that the four orders are generally the same.The excess of birth rate over death-rate is lowest in the very rich and the very poor districts.
The birth-rate in England and Wales is nominally diminishing at about an equal rate in both town and country.But the continuous migration of young persons from rural to industrial areas has considerably depleted the ranks of young married women in the rural districts； and， when allowance is made for this fact， we find that the percentage of births to women of childbearing ages is much higher in them than in the towns： as is shown in the following table published by the Registrar-General in 1907.
Mean Annual Birth Rates in Urban and Rural Areas Urban： 20 large towns， with an aggregate population of 9，742，404persons at the date of the Census of 1901.
Period Calculated on the total population Rate per 1000 Compared with rate in 1870-72 taken as 1001870-7236.7100.01880-8235.7 97.31890-9232.0 87.21900-0228.8 81.2Calculated on the female population， aged 15-45years Rate per 1000 Compared with rate in 1870-72 taken as 1001870-72143.1 100.01880-82140.698.31890-92124.687.11900-02111.477.8Rural： 112 entirely rural registration districts， with an aggregate population of 1，330，319 persons at the date of the Census of 1901.
Calculated on the total population Rate per 1000 Compared with rate in 1870-72 taken as 1001870-72 31.6100.01880-82 30.3 95.61890-92 27.8 88.01900-02 26.0 83.3Calculated on the female population， aged 15-45years Rate per 1000 Compared with rate in 1870-72 taken as 1001870-72158.9100.01880-82153.5 96.61890-92135.6 85.31900-02120.7 76.0The movements of the population of France have been studied with exceptional care： and the great work on the subject by Levasseur， La Population Fran鏰ise， is a mine of valuable information as regards other nations besides France.Montesquieu， reasoning perhaps rather a priori， accused the law of primogeniture which ruled in his time in France of reducing the number of children in a family： and le Play brought the same charge against the law of compulsory division.Levasseur (l.c.
