THE BIRTH-RATE 129 



less waste occurs in communication, transport, and the 

 distribution of power ; more improvements in industry 

 are made, owing to the closer contact of minds work- 

 ing at the same problem. Hence, with two populations 

 of the same quality, a dense one is more efficient than 

 a scattered one, and the second term in the total 

 means of subsistence grows faster, sometimes much 

 faster, than the population. 



But the real heart of the problem is to be sought in 

 the quality of the population. Were the whole people 

 of England suddenly to become feeble-minded, or even 

 to be changed into unintelligent, casual labourers, the 

 existing means of subsistence would rapidly become 

 useless or be destroyed, and famine and pestilence 

 would quickly reduce the population to the few who 

 could snatch a living from the wreck of our civilization. 



So, on the other hand, could the average strength 

 and ability of the nation be increased, the wealth of 

 the country would grow far quicker than any popula- 

 tion possible at present could outrun. As William 

 Farr, one of the ablest of our statisticians, wrote in the 

 Census Report of 1 8 5 1 : — ^ 



"The character of every race of men is the real 

 limit to its numbers in the world, if allowance be made 

 for accidents of position and time. 



" Population is often out of the place where it is 

 wanted, or could be most productive ; but the popula- 

 tion of the world is not, as Malthus assumes, redun- 

 dant ; and not only is there a paucity of men of tran- 

 scendent genius in all countries, but few persons who 

 have occasion to undertake, or who accomplish great 



1 Vital Stathtks, London, 1885, p. 15. 



K 



