THE BIRTH-RATE 127 



born to each thousand of the population is steadily 

 decreasing, and, in France, at any rate, in one year 

 actually has been less than the number of deaths — 

 *' more coffins than cradles," as a German observer 

 aptly remarked. For the first three nations, the turn 

 of the tide occurred uniformly between 1873 and 

 1876 ; in Germany the ebb set in about fifteen to 

 twenty years later. In Ireland alone of the con- 

 stituent nations of the United Kingdom, the drop 

 was checked about 1890. For the rest of the United 

 Kingdom the number of births per annum has fallen 

 fi-om 36 in 1000 in 1876 to 27 in 1000 in 1907.^ 



We could, perhaps, afford to regard such a state 

 of affairs with equanimity could we remain under the 

 delusion that the population of the British Isles was 

 homogeneous throughout ; that the previous thousand 

 years of stress and strain had produced no sorting-out 

 of ability, no " survival of the fittest," and that ability 

 was a matter of chance or the creation of the school- 

 master and drill-sergeant. If the condition of affairs 

 had remained the same in 1901 as in 1871, the 

 Registrar -General would have had to record about 

 200,000 more births in 1901 than he did ; and, by the 

 curious perversion of desire that often accompanies 

 human affairs, whereas in 1 871 we were inclined to be 

 dissatisfied with the large size of his returns, in 1901, 

 and ever since, we have become alarmed at their 

 decrease. 



The general opinion on the subject of population 

 and subsistence has varied greatly from time to time. 



' Public Health and Social Conditions, Blue-book published by the Local Govern- 

 ment Board, 1909. 



