10 



in tlie history of the world. The early Christians are so often 

 appealed to in theological controversies that they have come to 

 be regarded as the standard with which we are to be compared, 

 forgetful of the fact that they had only just emerged from 

 heathendom, and, notwithstanding the sincerity of their faith, 

 were still smirched with the mire out of which they had been 

 dragged. The man of the world of the present day would die of 

 shame were he accused of the vices for which St. Paul rebuked 

 the Corinthian Christians. 



I have hitherto considered the question from the standpoint 

 of our own country. But little time is left for the racial aspect 

 of the question. Savage races are dying out before our eyes 

 with the greatest rapidity. In North America the red man is 

 little more than a memory. The Carib has almost disappeared 

 from the West India Islands. In Australasia and the Pacific 

 Islands, the Maori, the Kanaki, and the Papuan are swiftly dying 

 out. Making the fullest allowance for the havoc wrought by 

 war, and the vices and diseases introduced by civilized man, they 

 do not fully explain the case. Some mysterious blight appears to 

 have been cast over these races by the presence of a higher form of 

 humanity, and they die out with a strange rapidity, notwithstand- 

 ing in many instances the forbearing protection of the stronger 

 European. It must be noted that none of these evanescent races 

 have ever been very numerous, and they have never shown them- 

 selves capable of settling down in any steady way to industry. 

 The same fate is not likely to arise for the Hindoo, the Negro, 

 or the Chinaman. These are all too numerous and too firmly 

 fixed on the soil to be ousted. In India, out of an estimated 

 population of 220 millions, there are some 47 million persons in 

 the proportion of 600 to the square mile. More than 36j millions 

 of them are packed to the extent of 800 to the square mile or H 

 persons per acre. The density in England is only about ^ 

 person to an acre. English rule, by preventing internecine wars 

 between Mahomedans and Hindoos (which would, if tolerated, 

 effectually keep down the population), by forbidding infanticide, 

 by taking measures to avoid famine and diminish the amount of 

 malaria and cholera, is causing a rapid increase of the Indian 

 population. I do not think this need produce alarm. There is 

 still much uncultivated soil in India, and could the extortionate 

 action of the landowners be stopped, and security of tenure be 

 secured for the fellaheen, the soil will be equal to all requirements 

 for many years to come. With increasing civilization and with the 

 abolition of child mai-riages, the problem will tend to solve itself. 



