286 LETTERS TO THE &quot; TIMES &quot; v 



VIII 

 The &quot; Times&quot; December 29th, 1890 



SIR, If Mr. Cunningham doubts the efficacy 

 of the struggle for existence, as a factor in social 

 conditions, he should find fault with Mr. Booth 

 and not with me. 



&quot; I am labouring under no delusion as to the 

 possibility of inaugurating the millennium by my 

 social specific. In the struggle of life the weakest 

 will go to the wall, and there are so many weak. 

 The fittest in tooth and claw will survive. All 

 that we can do is to soften the lot of the unfit, 

 and make their suffering less horrible than it is 

 at present &quot; (&quot; In Darkest England,&quot; p. 44). 



That is what Mr. Cunningham would have 

 found if he had read Mr. Booth s book with 

 attention. And, if he will bestow equal pains on 

 my second letter, he will discover that he has 

 interpolated the word &quot; wilfully &quot; in his statement 

 of my &quot; argument,&quot; which runs thus : &quot; Shutting 

 his eyes to the necessary consequences of the 

 struggle for life, the existence of which he admits 

 as fully as any Darwinian, Mr. Booth tells men 

 whose evil case is one of those consequences that 

 envy is a corner-stone of our competitive system.&quot; 



