Show MAIIUUGES IX EXKLAXU A GRADUAL DILl F THAT CANNOT CAN-NOT KB ACOOCNTE0 llt Tim curious fact is brought out In lie report of the registrar general of ilrUis deaths and marriages in England that tine marriages of 1SSS bore precisely the same proportion Lo the population as they did in liST In hot years H2 persons were married to every 1000 living Ttjesame peculiarity has not been lrved since 1SCG when the mar iage rate was 175 per 1000 exactly the same as in Ib6o I will 0 feel that the marriage rate lias gone down considerably in those twenty two years I was n fracUon lower namely 141 In 1SCO but Inc the rate began to b recorded It has evrbeen so low as in the three years of 1SSG 1SS7 and lOSS Other people are left to determine the cause of this decline Tine tog strargeneral makes no attempt to guess I He only joints out that whereon the rule in recent years has nn fur tine marriage rate to go up or down w lilt llhe value of British exports and with Uie average price oC wheat the number of marriages lava in lOSS remaIned stationary loughthe exports n and tine PrIce oC wheat fell Another curl ius fact is that the same number of marriages Ir 1000 wire celebrated II the Church of England In 1SSS and 1SS7 but before that the estab slied church marriages r yearly b year-ly year decreasing Roman CaUio iic marriags have declined very ightly 1 per 1000 since 1SS7 but Ift long average is taken the rate oeernsto be pretty steady I was 2 lerlOO0 In ISSi It woo the same In lobs tine same in 1S72 In 1S75 S701S7S and in ISSC In oUter years it has been eomeUmes more less mmd sometimes JC In other denominations it rose front 100 In 1S71 to US in IS to with uituations between those two num lol In intervening cn and fore for-e last two years it has been 116 Quaker marriages show almost no < uctuatlon but the increase ininar riltges by Jewish then excites tie mark of the registrar general w ho observes that whereas the tital unIons In England and Wales lnce SSI have incnosed by less than 4 icr cent the Jewish I celebrations 1 mayo risen by C3 percent The In f uence of recent legislation ij tmc able in the growing number of civil marriages which were never so marl3gl1 whih zelr s numerous ns lost year Twenty yeare ago these were only D per JO now they are up to 137 London llaffyXetn |