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that in the present era the United Kingdom is more 

 densely peopled than she would have been had *he 

 not, as the result of emigration from her shores, become 

 the Mother Country of the United States of America 

 and of Canada, of Australasia and of South Africa, 

 inasmuch as her commerce with their populations is 

 the means of enriching her mercantile classes and 

 supporting millions engaged in her mining and 

 manufacturing industries. 



Whether as the long result of time, in the develop- 

 ments of the future, pauperism will be eliminated 

 from the economic conditions of the most civilised 

 peoples, is a question upon which I do not venture to 

 pronounce any opinion ; but it is a fact that within 

 living memory the number of paupers proportional to 

 population in the United Kingdom has declined from 

 one in twenty to one in forty. 



This result must be attributed to the greater 

 comfort and improvement in the condition of the 

 working classes, enabling them in a greater degree to 

 support indigent relatives who have survived their 

 ability to continue as active workers in the labour 

 market. It is, however, scarcely conceivable that any 

 social advance can be achieved that will obviate the 

 necessity of a large number of superannuated labourers, 

 of aged women, and poor widows with their dependent 

 offspring, being supported either by private charity or 

 by statutory provisions for their maintenance. This 

 necessity may be regarded as inextricably attached 

 to the circumstances and conditions under which 



