THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 235 



on the side of exaggeration than of defect. Adding 

 again to these the pauper roll of the United Kingdom, 

 we get out of a population of forty-three millions a 

 number considerably under two millions, of whom the 

 greater number have spent their day of labour and 

 become worn out in the labour market, while the 

 remainder have either refused to enter that market 

 or have been cast out from it. But these various 

 categories are not all to be characterised as miserable ; 

 forasmuch as those persons comprised in the pauper 

 roll have an assured maintenance, while the vagrants 

 accept their lot as more desirable than that of working 

 men. 



Are we, I ask, entitled to speak of any part of 

 the above aggregate of two millions or under that 

 figure as a surplus population due to the population 

 having increased faster than the means of subsistence ? 

 Is it to provide outlets for such a surplus population 

 that European nations are seeking to acquire colonies ? 

 Does any portion of such a surplus population go forth 

 to other lands to seek material betterment ? Would 

 any portion of it be received into any young country 

 that is inviting emigrants from other lands to develop 

 its resources ? 



When I consider the amount of imperfection that 

 cleaves to human nature, and also the complicated net- 

 work and interlocking arrangements of our industrial 

 and commercial system, with the attendant instability 

 of human affairs, far from being surprised at the 

 numbers represented in the several categories I have 



