Show S t decrease of population tion ilon in franca france at t the late hato con Cou congress gress of boman roman Cat catholic hollo a priest of the order of jesus read a remarkable paper p ape upon the causes of decreasing F population in in france the tho is s one which at the present moment in ent is ls obviously of the utmost consequence to the nation the abbe sambin bambin L agrees with napoleon 1 I in his maxim that the rank of a nation is to be measured by t the number of men it can arm ar in and bring into the tho nield field and no neg new w that both poth vj tranee trance rance and germany german Germao yara yaro ara are enforcing pretty rigidly the tho aw of universal unive al military bervice pervice it becomes P a serious reconcile the tha continued decrease of pop ii in the furmer former country with the tho idea id e a of recovering meco reco ering her het lost position I 1 in europe the reality ot the mise mischief hi cf js Is not a matter of vague assertion it 15 is 15 testified unmistakably by the ohe statistics of the census these show abow thao that the population of prance at the present rate double itself in less than ISO years sears whereas that wat of austria is doubled in ito ilo years seers those thosa of england and germany in about 57 and that of russia in 50 nor is the caise canse of the difference less leps alarming than thelfa tha the fact Qt the slow siow rate of increase in austria is in part accounted for by the greater unhealthiness iLess iness of the country alike cause would tell the same tale taie calein in Russ Bussi labut abut the I 1 large a rge families milies more than comp compensate for the losses by death lun luu lue IkE luerance france urance rance the death rate is lower than in any other european country consequently the almost stagnant stale staig of the population as regards their numerical increase is due solely to the carcity scarcity of births the statistics above given areef course taken with every allowance for the loss of territory terri territory tor y and also for fon the losse losses in the actual war wan even thus many statisticians will contend that the rate of french increase in crease is even evet i more slow siow or in short that there is no increase at all but the practical question is how hw can such an un exceptional inferiority in sha she national growth be remedied or counteracted jn in order to answer such a question the first necessity is to determine to what cause it is due the abbe sambia ht tributes attributes aitto it to the french law ladof of compulsory partition of property on the death of the owner this principle is of course coul founded on the roman law of intestate succession success slon sion but it is an exaggeration bf that law and surpasses it a long way in its rigor it is however a noticeable fa fact t that the decline of imperial F borne ome is attributed by able histo riana riina to the saine phenomenon of which the french complain a preponderance of de deaths athar over olef births throughout the nation E ex x afia awid and it ts is getting popular in amella america to go the same way by maahs of and small smail ai or no families j |