212 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



But let us, for the sake of argument, assume that 

 something like the proportional increase of the last 

 fifty years will be maintained : the United Kingdom 

 will one hundred years hence contain one hundred 

 millions of inhabitants. The population of Germany 

 is at present about sixty millions. Its rate of numerical 

 increase for the decade 1890-1900 was about 16 

 per cent. But let us assume that its average growth 

 per decade in the present century will be 1 per cent., 

 the population at its close will amount to one hundred 

 and fifty millions. Belgium and the Netherlands, two 

 highly industrial and progressive communities, have 

 together at present thirteen million souls. Let us 

 suppose them to contain at the end of the century 

 thirty millions. The combined populations of those 

 four countries, the British Isles, Germany, Belgium, 

 and the Netherlands, aggregate at the present day 

 one hundred and sixteen millions, while the amount 

 of food raised by these countries is not capable of 

 supporting more than eighty-three million people, 

 leaving thirty-three millions to be supported entirely 

 by the produce of other countries. So ample, 

 abundant, and ready to hand are the supplies of food 

 furnished by fertile but sparsely peopled countries, 

 and so small the cost of importation into the im- 

 porting countries, that in the British Isles, which 

 thirty-five years ago boasted the noblest and most 

 profitable agriculture the world had ever known, 

 agriculture has ceased to be a flourishing industry, 

 so that it is scarcely worth while, except on the 



