THE BIRTH-RATE 137 



that the " poor " boroughs contain not only the highest 

 number of Irish Roman Catholics, but also the largest 

 proportion of foreigners and Jews. In Whitechapel and 

 Mile End Old Town half the marriages are solemnized 

 according to the Jewish rite. 



With reference to this division of London into dis- 

 tricts, the Poor Law Commissioners of 1909, in dealing 

 with the question of workhouse children, have a very 

 interesting footnote. They say : " Even illegitimacy 

 is no proof of inferiority of stock. In visiting Poor 

 Law institutions it has been noted that, whilst in some 

 districts the illegitimates seemed mostly the backward 

 and badly formed children, those in Hampstead, Ken- 

 sington, and Chelsea were often the most refined, well- 

 built, and promising." This gives us much evidence as 

 to the class of persons who are contributing to this 

 particular source of the population in these areas, 

 and leaves us to infer the grave loss to the community 

 in the substitution of an occasional chance birth, with 

 ability probably on one side only, for the family that 

 might be expected to result from normal married life. 



We will now leave the general corrected birth-rate 

 returns, and follow Mr. Sidney Webb in an examination 

 of the evidence supplied with regard to a special sample 

 of the population, selected solely on the desirable 

 characteristics of permanent employment, thrift, and 

 foresight. The Hearts of Oak Friendly Society has a 

 membership of over a quarter of a million persons of 

 the artisan and skilled mechanic classes, forming an 

 upper class of skilled labour, in receipt of twenty-four 

 shillings a week apiece or over. It provides a " lying-in 



