The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-01-11 00:00:00

Etc gotourbriby Asertler.

SATURDAY. JANUARY U. Int

DECREASING POPULATION OF

FRANCE.

A rather saddening official document has just
been published in France, giving us the result
of the census of the population in 1872. From
this it appears that the total number of inhabit-
ants in that year was 37,102,921, showing a dim-
inution of 366,935 persons as compared with the
census of 1866. The population has increased
in some departments, but has diminished in
others, and the above is the nett result. Several
causes are assigned for this. The small-pox
opidemie in 1870 was very fatal. This is a sad
fact in connection with a country where medical
science has reached the very acme of skill, and
, where sanitary regulations are usually consid-
ered to be superior to our own, though that per-
haps is not saying much. We, too, suffered very
severely from the same malady about the same
, time, and it was mainly owing to the determined
atolls at isolation and the best possible treat-
ment, under the blessing of the Almighty, that
this terrible plague was stayed. Another cause
of the decrease of the population of France says
very little for the skill of her medical men or the
efficiency of her sanitary arrangements, This
cause is simply stated as the surplus of deaths
over births. Life and death, however, are in the
hands of the Supreme, and the preponderance
of deaths may have been occasioned by no re-
missness on the part of French doctors or hos-
pital authorities. In any case, however, the fact
is depressing. Still another cause is to be re-
gretted, the decrease in the number of marriages.
This in its turn may have been greatly bilk.
cored by the terrible Franco-Prussian war.
When an enemy is on the soil it is no time for
marrying and giving in marriage Households
are disturbed; the young men are called from
their homes to the battle-field; and many a be-
trothed couple in Franco have no doubt deferred
their marriage till more peaceful times, which
have never conic for them, for a l'russian bullet
has laid low the young fiance who was looking
forward to home and happiness. And this brings
us to another terrible cause of the decreased
population of France. To what extent the
slaughter, starvation, and lingering deaths
caused by the was has lesbencd the population
we have no means of ascertaining; but the lose
of life—chiefly that of the flower of her popu-
lation--must have been very serious to France.
There is one important fact not mentioned in
, these returns. When the previous census of
France was taken in 1866 it amounted to
38,067,694, and this included the provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine, the population of which
was 1,549,459. Deducting this from the former
amount, we find that the number of the people
would be 36,517,635; but we have seen that it is
now considerably less than this. It is, moreover,
unfair to cieduct the whole of the population of
these provinces, seeing that a large proportion
of the inhabitants, on the option being given
them, chose to remain French, and most of these
must have returned to France before the census
was taken. On the whole, therefore, we find
that the population of the country, instead of
increasing, as it would have done in peaceful
times, ;has decreased, and this from four very
painful causes—war, pestilence, a preponderance
of deaths over births, and a falling off in the
number of marriages. Causes and effect alike
call forth the sympathies of other nations.
France has indeed passed through a long and a
very severe time of calamity, but we trust that
brighter days are in store for her, and that she
may now coca again progress in the arts and
blessings of peace.