SELECTIVE BIRTH-RATE 167 



limits of national duty, and accepted at once the 

 opportunities and limitations of their station in life. 



It appears, then, that till recent years the majority 

 of the younger sons of the class we are now considering 

 joined the Army or the Navy or took Holy Orders. 

 Of these three professions, the Army attracted by far 

 the largest number. We should expect that the first 

 signs of a proportionate decrease, in the supply of 

 children in the landed class would be found in a fall 

 in the number of candidates for entrance into these 

 professions. 



Now it is a matter of common notoriety that while 

 the would-be sailors are still many, the Army and 

 the Church are suffering from a dearth of proper 

 candidates. Doubtless many other causes may be 

 assigned, and have been assigned freely, for this 

 phenomenon. But surely one preponderant cause is 

 not far to seek. One of our writers, on a certain 

 mock-tragic occasion, tells us " No birds were flying 

 overhead. There were no birds to fly." We may 

 extract the essence of his wisdom and say that no 

 younger sons are going into the Church and the Army 

 for the simple reason that there are no younger sons 

 to go. 



In the Church and the Army, the average pay is 

 too small for the standard of life of the classes it is 

 necessary to attract. Hence these professions have 

 relied in the past on filling their ranks from those 

 who, from a sense of duty or from hereditary disposi- 

 tion, were ready to serve God in Church or State for 

 an insufficient remuneration. From the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century till recent years, there has been 



