tedly, for Mr Sadler's theory. The
numbers 396, 390, 388, 378, follow each other very speciously in a
descending order. But let our readers divide these thirty-four counties
into two equal sets of seventeen counties each, and try whether the
principle will then hold good. We have made this calculation, and we
present them with the following result.

The number of children to 100 marriages is--

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.

Demonstrating the Law of Population from the Censuses of Prussia at two
several Periods.

(Here follows a table showing for inhabitants on a square league the
average number of births to each marriage from two different censuses.)

1756 1784

832 to 928...4.34 and 4.72
1175 to 1909...4.14 and 4.45 (including East Prussia at 1175)
2083 to 2700...3.84 and 4.24
3142 to 3461...3.65 and 4.08

Of the census of 1756 we will say nothing, as Mr Sadler, finding himself
hard pressed by the argument which we drew from it, now declares it to
be grossly defective. We confine ourselves to the census of 1784: and we
will draw our lines at points somewhat different from those at which Mr
Sadler has drawn his. L