In the end of the seventeenth century, the terri tory of France, when equal, or very nearly equal to its present extent, appears, from the report of the intendants or provincial governors, to have contain ed about 20,000,000 of inhabitants. This number was found, by the census made by order of the Na tional Assembly, to have increased nearly a third in the course of a century; the amount, in 1791, being a number which, by the latest computa tion, made in 1817, had farther increased to above 29,000,000. These returns show, on the one hand, the exaggerated estimate commonly formed of the waste attendant on the wars of the Revolution ; and, on the other hand, that the ratio of increase in France, though considerable, is (see article ENGLAND, p.
149) a good deal below that of our country. The average population of France is 144 inhabitants to the square mile.
on an actual survey, but tiy adding for the period that has intervened, the births, and deducting the deaths, of both of which an accurate record is kept in the public offices. It is thus difficult to compute the relative number engaged in different occupa tions; a late publication. (by Count de Laborde) contains the following estimate ; Large as is this proportion of agriculturists, it does not exceed, nor indeed equal, the proportion return ed in the official census of 1791.
As the departments of France do not differ much in superficial extent, a cursory inspection of such a list as that in the Encyclopcedia discloses at once the different degrees of density in the population of the kingdom, exhibiting very clearly the supe riority of Flanders and Normandy over the heaths of Poitou and the mountains of Languedoc. The temporary additions to the population of the French empire, made by the incorporation of conquer ed territory, amounted, in 1801, to 6,000,000, and, in 1811, the time of their greatest extent, to 14,000,000.
The estimates of 13opulation•in France, subsequent to 1791, are formed, not like our population returns, That the proportion of our population inha, biting towns is greater than in France, is at once ascertained by taking the aggregate of twepty Of the largest cities in each ; for France, that ag gregate is about 1,700,000; for Britain and Ireland, 2,300,000.
The ratio of the increase of population in France is greatest in the lower classes ; the middling and upper ranks have seldom large _families. Men in such stations in France are much less habituated to steady industry than in England ; the 'openings in trade to, respectable employment and eventual com petency are comparatively few ; and, in very many "situations, the incomes are adequate to the support of an individual only. In that country, as with US, the population evidently increases faster since the adoption of vaccine inoculation. The illegitimate births are numerous only in Paris. Of the aveoge mortality in France, there have not as yet beet pub lished returns of a comprehensive nature. The 81 mate • and soil are, in general, no less salubriotis than those of Britain, and the advaatages attend ant on agricultural habits are enjoyed by a much greater proportion of the population; but a con siderable waste of health, and even of life, takes place from the crowded nature of the towns, and the damp position of very many of the cottages. A want of comfort on the part of the lower orders, tends, along with their deficient cleanliness, to the same result; but, on the other hand, the general activity, temperance, and cheerfulness of the people, are all in favour of health and longevity.