532 IMPKOVEMENT OF THE HUMAN BREED. 



play the Deggar or the bully. They render no useful service; they 

 create no wealth, more often they destroy it. They degrade whatever 

 they touch, and as individuals are perhaps incapable of improvement; 

 * * * but I do not mean to say that there are not individuals of 

 every sort to be found in the mass. Those who are able to wash the 

 mud may find some gems in it. There are at any rate many very pite- 

 ous cases. Whatever doubt there may be as to the exact numbers of 

 this class, it is certain that they bear a very small proportion to the 

 rest of the population, or even to class B, with which they are mixed 

 up and from which it is at times difficult to separate them. * * * 

 They are barbarians, but they are a handful." He says further: "It 

 is much to be desired and to be hoped that this class may become less 

 hereditaiy in its character; there appears to be no doubt that it is now 

 hereditary to a very considerable extent." 



Many who are familiar with the habits of these people do not hesi- 

 tate to say that it would be an economy and a great benefit to the 

 country if all habitual criminals were resolutely segregated under 

 merciful surveillance and peremptorily denied opportunities for pro- 

 ducing offspring. It would abolish a source of suffering and misery to 

 a future generation, and would cause no unwarrantable hardship in 

 this. 



DIPLOMAS. 



It will be remembered that Mr. Booth's classification did not help 

 us beyond classes higher than Sin civic worth. If a strong and widely 

 felt desire should arise to discover young men whose position was of 

 the V, W, or X order, there would not be much difficulty in doing so. 

 Let us imagine for a moment what might be done in any great uni- 

 versity where the students are in continual competition in studies, 

 in athletics, or in public meetings, and where their characters are pub- 

 licly known to associates and to tutors. Before attempting to make a 

 selection, acceptable definitions of civic worth would have to be made 

 in alternative terms, for there are many forms of civic worth. The 

 number of men of the V, W, or X classes, whom the university was 

 qualified to contribute annually, must also be ascertained. As was said, 

 the proportion in the general population of the V class to the remainder 

 is as 1 to 300. and that of the VY class as 1 in 3,000. Hut students are 

 a somewhat selected body, because the cleverest youths, in a scholastic 

 sense, usually find their wa}^ to universities. A considerably high 

 level, both intellectually and physically, would be required as a <|iialiti- 

 cation for candidature. The limited number who had not been auto- 

 matically weeded away by this condition might be submitted in some 

 appropriate way to the independent votes of fellow students on the 

 one hand and of tutors on the other, whose ideals of character and 

 merit necessarily differ. This ordeal would reduce the possible win- 

 ners to a very small number, out of which an independent committee 



