36 
regarded by ardent Malthusians as a doubtful good ; but there 
was every reason to think that the same causes which led toa 
lowered mortality had produced an improved standard of health 
among survivors. There had also been a lowering of the birth- 
rate, so that the population had not been growing at a greater 
rate during the past ten years than before the saving of lives 
occurred. Evidently the limits of subsistence had not been 
reached, or we might expect to see all classes gradually converging 
from other employments towards agriculture ; whereas in most 
countries the exactly opposite phenomenon was occurring. The 
same fact was shown by the diminished pauperism in this 
country, the number having fallen from 45°7 paupers per 1,000 of 
population in 1857 to 24°2 per 1,000 in 1889. The increased 
consumption of luxuries showed the same thing. While over one 
million pounds of tea, coffee, and cocoa were consumed in this 
country in 1856, over 245 million pounds were consumed in 1888. 
The average workman was now getting from 50 to Ioo per cent. 
more wages for 20 per cent. less work than 40 or 50 years ago. 
It was true that between 1820 and 1880 over eight million persons 
had emigrated. But war, pestilence, and famine were not the 
only means of limiting population. The standard of comfort in 
all classes was being steadily raised, and would be raised still 
more as education became more general. ‘This higher standard 
of comfort would lead to the postponement of marriage until the 
standard could be realised. It was evident that emigration and 
colonisation must eventually cease. In about a century the 
population of the United States had increased from three millions 
to about 65 or 7o millions. If the same rate of increase con- 
tinued for another century, the density of population in the 
States would be 500 persons per square mile as compared with 
492 persons per square mile at present in England and Wales. 
In that ultimate issue how could the growth of population be 
restrained? In this country the birth-rate was at present 
governed by the number of marriages and the ages at marriage of 
women. The illegitimate birth-rate had declined, in spite of the 
lowering of the marriage rate which had occurred. If one-fourth of 
the women who now marry were to remain celibate, and if those 
who do marry were to marry five years later than at present, the 
birth-rate would just balance the present death-rate. Such 
abstinence from marriage was not desirable, but among the 
working classes it was desirable that the average age of marriage 
should be increased, and there were educational influences at 
work which would probably lead to this. In a historical review of 
the subject, it was evident that depopulation of some countries 
occurred as well as over population of others. It might be that 
laws of population existed, of which little was as yet known. 
Undoubtedly the progress of population caz be stayed should it 
—— 
