166 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



posts that younger men were ready to step into ; but 

 the greater number would have to seek refuge in the 

 army of tramps and beggars. The posts which the 

 labour market of England contains at the present 

 time are all filled, and no industry has been hampered, 

 or has ceased to advance less rapidly, in consequence 

 of the departure of emigrants from our shores, nor 

 has any enterprise been thereby hindered from its due 

 development. The conclusion is therefore inevitable, 

 that England is not by a single family less populous 

 to-day than she would have been if she had not sent 

 forth the men who peopled the vast continents of 

 North America and Australasia. 



Imagine, if it be possible to imagine, what con- 

 sequences would follow if Europe proceeded to a 

 general disarmament, and suddenly discharged upon 

 the already filled labour market the vast armies that 

 are now maintained upon the peace-footing. This 

 multitudinous host of men in the prime of life 

 would be augmented by the workers who provide the 

 soldiers with food, clothing, and all their personal 

 equipment, and by those who make and furnish the 

 munitions of war. The suffering and misery that 

 would follow would be scarcely less terrible than 

 would result from the conflagration of a universal \v;ir. 



As a specimen of the wise-looking folly that obtains 

 among a certain class of political economists, I give 

 an extract from the article " Prussia," in the National 

 Encyclopedia of the date 1872. The writer of the 

 article says : " Prussia had a first place for the 



