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360 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUD\~S
operate to a great extent upon the birth-rate itself
without diminishing the growth of population, because
the children though born in smaller proportion are
better cared for, and the rate of excess of births oOver
deaths consequently remains considerable although the
birth-rate itself is low. The serious fact would be a
decline of the rate of the excess of births over deaths
through the death-rate remaining comparatively high
while the birth-rate falls. It is in this conjunction that
the gravity of the stationariness of population in France
appears to lie. While the birth-rate in France is un-
doubtedly a low one, 21.9 per 1,000 in 1899, according
to the latest figures before me, still this would have
been quite sufficient to ensure a considerable excess
rate of births over deaths, and a considerable increase
of population every ten years if the death-rate had
been as low as in the United Kingdom, viz., 18.3 per
1,000. A difference of 3.6 per 1,000 upon a population of
about 40 millions comes to about 150,000 per annum or
1,500,000 and rather more every ten years. In France,
however, the death-rate was 2 I. I per 1,000 instead of
18.3 as in the United Kingdom, and it is this com-
paratively high death-rate which really makes the
population stationary. The speculations indulged in in
some quarters, therefore, though they may be justified
in future, are hardly yet justified by the general statist-
ical facts. The subject is one of profound interest, and
must be carefully studied, but the conclusions I have
.referred to· must be regarded as premature until the
study has been made.

Conclusion.
Such are a few illustrations of the importance of the
ideas which are suggested by the most common sta-
tistics-those Of the regular records which civilized
societies have instituted. I t is indeed self-evident how
important it is to know such facts as the growing
weight of countries of European civilization in com-