ai4 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



so an hundred years hence, when their present 

 populations have been multiplied tenfold ; and their 

 extreme limit will have been reached in the lapse 

 of another century. We may well believe that no 

 region in the globe capable of producing food for 

 man, and having food to export, will be overlooked 

 by those nations that require its importation ; while 

 the inevitable end will certainly be anticipated and 

 provided for, if not by legislation, by the due opera- 

 tion of the law of population. The competition of 

 the importing nations will grow to a great height 

 and the price of food will proportionally rise, until 

 the ability of the working classes to enter into the 

 married state becomes greatly curtailed. Population 

 will begin to decline, and the process of declension 

 will continue until it reaches a point when the 

 inhabitants of the country are not more numerous 

 than the soil is capable of supporting. 



I do not anticipate that the declension of the 

 population of Great Britain, from its highest point 

 of attainment until the equipoise has been reached 

 between it and the produce of the soil, will be 

 accompanied by suffering or distress or by deteriora- 

 tion in the standard of comfort. On the other hand, 

 I feel assured that, during the two centuries that 

 will elapse from the present date until the civilised 

 communities of the world are obliged to live on the 

 produce of their own soil, the influences ameliorative 

 of the conditions of human life, proceeding from the 

 further utilisation by science of the forces of Nature, 



