DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 19 



theories are misapplied to practical matters. 

 Mr. Galton declares most emphatically that he 

 looks upon the peerage "as a disastrous insti- 

 tution, owing to its destructive effects on our 

 valuable races." If an eminent man is elevated 

 to the House of Lords, his eldest son is 

 tempted to marry a wealthy heiress, in order 

 to keep up the show required of a hereditary 

 legislator ; but wealthy heiresses usually tend 

 to be sterile, being the last representatives of 

 dwindling families. On the other hand, owine 

 to the custom of primogeniture, the younger 

 sons are induced to remain unmarried : and 

 thus the peerage appears to be an ingenious 

 device for hindering the propagation of talent. 1 

 Further Mr. Galton shows clearly enough the 

 absurdity of expecting to find ability trans- 

 mitted through a long line of descent : the 

 older a man's family, therefore, the less likely 

 is he to have inherited any of the ability of its 

 founder. I suppose there is still a pious Con- 

 servative superstition that " our old nobility " 

 can boast of its " Norman blood " a belief 

 which a critical examination of a recent copy 

 of the Peerage would do a Qrood deal to weaken 

 1 See Galton's Hereditary Genius, p. 14c. 



