I asked fome questions refpecting the management of his eftate, told me, that he never troubled himself to inquire whether it was properly cultivated or not, which he feemed to confider as a matter in which he was not in the smallest degree concerned. Cela m' eft égal, fays he, cela me fait ni bien ni mal. He gave his boors permiffion to earn their tax how and where they liked, and as long as he received it he was fatiffied. But it is evident, that by this kind of conduet he facrificed the future population of his eftate, and the confequent future increase of his revenues, to confiderations of indolence and prefent convenience.

It is certain, however, that of late years many noblemen have attended more to the improvement and population of their eftates, inftigated principally by the precepts and examples of the emprefs Catharine, who made the greatest exertions to advance the cultivation of the country. Her immenfe importations of German fettlers not only contributed to people her state with free citizens, inftead of flaves, but what was perhaps of still more importance, to fet an example of industry, and of modes of directing that industry, totally unknown to the Ruffian peasants.

Thefe

Thefe exertions have been crowned, upon the whole, with great fuccefs; and it is not to be doubted, that, during the reign of the late empress, and fince, a very confiderable increase of cultivation and of population has been going forward in almost every part of the Ruffian empire. In the year 1763, an enumeration of the people, estimated by the poll-tax, gave a population of 14,726,696; and the fame kind of enumeration in 1783 gave a population of 25,677,000, which, if correct, shows a very extraordinary increase; but it is supposed, that the enumeration in 1783 was more correct and complete than the one in 1763. Including the provinces not fubject to the poll-tax, the general calculation for 1763 was 20,000,000, and for 1796 36,000,000*.

In a fubfequent edition of Mr. Tooke's View of the Ruffian Empire, a table of the births, deaths, and marriages, in the Greek church, is given for the year 1799, taken from a respectable German periodical publication, and faithfully extracted from the general returns received by the fynod. It contains all the eparchies except Bruzlaw, which, from the peculiar difficulties

• Tooke's View of the Ruffian Empire, vol. ii, book iii, fect. i, p. 126, et feq.

attending a correct lift of mortality in that

epar

chy, could not be inferted. The general results

451,525.

Marriages, 257,513.

Overplus (Males,

of births, Females, 196,093.J

To estimate the population Mr. Tooke multiplies the deaths by 58. But as this table has the appearance of being more correct than those which preceded it, and as the proportion of deaths compared with the births is greater in this table than in the others, it is probable that 58 is too great a multiplier. It may be observed, that in this table the births are to the deaths nearly as 183 to 100, the births to marriages as 385 to 100, and the deaths to the marriages as 210 to

100.

These are all more probable proportions than the refults of the former tables.

СНАР.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Checks to Population in the middle parts of Europe.

I HAVE dwelt longer on the northern states of Europe than their relative importance might, to fome, appear to demand, because their internal economy is in many respects effentially different from our own, and a perfonal though flight acquaintance with thefe countries has enabled me to mention a few particulars which have not yet been before the public. In the middle parts of Europe, the divifion of labour, the diftribution of employments, and the proportion of the inhabitants of towns to the inhabitants of the country differ fo little from what is obfervable in England, that it would be in vain to feek for the checks to their population in any peculiarity of habits and manners fufficiently marked to admit of defcription. I fhall therefore endeavour to direct the reader's attention principally to fome inferences drawn from the lifts of births, marriages, and deaths in different countries; and thefe data will, in many important points, give

BB 3

nal

give us more information respecting their intereconomy than we could receive from the moft obferving traveller,

One of the most curious and inftructive points of view, in which we can confider lifts of this kind, appears to me to be the dependence of the marriages on the deaths. It has been justly obferved by Montefquieu, that, wherever there is a place for two perfons to live comfortably, a marriage will certainly enfue: but in most of the countries in Europe, in the present state of their population, experience will not allow us to expect any fudden and great increase in the means of fupporting a family. The place therefore for the new marriage muft, in general, be made by the diffolution of an old one; and we find in confequence, that except after fome great mortality, from whatever cause it may have proceeded, or fome fudden change of policy peculiarly favourable to cultivation and trade, the number of annual marriages is regulated principally by the number of annual deaths. They reciprocally influence each other, There are few countries, in which the common people have fo much forefight, as to defer marriage till they have a fair profpect of being able to support Efprit des Loix, liv, xxii, c. x.

a

properly