THE ANGLO-SxVXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 211 



6.89 per cent. If this rate of increase is sustained for a 

 century, the population on the continent in 1980 will be 

 534,000,000; while the one Anglo-Saxon race, if it should 

 multiply for a hundred years as fast as from 1870 to 

 1880, would in 1980 number 1,111,000,000 souls, an incred- 

 ible increase, of course. 



What then will be the probable numbers of this race a 

 hundred years hence? It is hazardous to venture a 

 prophecy, but we may weigh probabilities. In studying 

 this subject several things must be borne in mind. Here- 

 tofore, the great causes which have operated to check 

 the growth of population in the world have been war, 

 famine, and pestilence; but, among civihzed peoples, 

 these causes are becoming constantly less operative, 

 Paradoxical as it seems, the invention of more destruc- 

 tive weapons of war renders war less destructive ; com- 

 merce and wealth have removed the fear of famine, and 

 pestilence is being brought more and more under control 

 by medical skill and sanitary science. Moreover, Anglo- 

 Saxons, with the exception of the people of Great Brit- 

 ain, who now compose less than one-third of this race, 

 are much less exposed to these checks upon growth than 

 the races of Europe. Again, Europe is crowded, and is 

 constantly becoming more so, which will tend to reduce 

 continually the ratio of increase ; while over two-thirds 

 of the Anglo-Saxons occupy lands which invite almost 

 unlimited expansion — the United States, Canada, Aus- 

 tralia, and South xlfrica. Again, emigration from Eur- 

 ope, which will probably increase, is very largely into 

 Anglo-Saxon countries; and. though these foreign ele- 

 ments exert a modifying influence on the Anglo-Saxon 

 stock, their descendants are certain to be Anglo-Saxon- 

 ized. From 1870 to 1880, Germany lost 987,000 inhabi- 

 tants by emigration, most of whom came to the 

 United States. In one generation, their children will be 

 counted Anglo-Saxons. This race has been undergoing 

 an unparalleled expansion during the eighteenth and 

 nineteenth centuries, and the conditions for its continued 

 growth are singularly favorable. 



