138 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



benefit " of thirty shillings for each birth of a child to 

 its members. From 1866 to 1880 the claims under 

 this head rose from 2176 to 2472 per 10,000; from 

 1 88 1 to 1904 they fell from 2472 to 11 65 — a decline 

 of more than half, or three times as great a fall as that 

 shown by the total returns for England and Wales in 

 the same period. A smaller Friendly Society gave a 

 decline of 56 per cent. If the prosperous artisan 

 members of these two Societies alone had maintained 

 their rate of reproduction in 1904 as in 1880, nearly 

 70,000 children would have been born to them instead 

 of 32,000. Thus in one small section of the people 

 there is a loss in one year of nearly 38,000 children, 

 who in all human probability would have been useful 

 and active citizens. Other Friendly Societies show the 

 same phenomenon. 



It is possible to make a detailed study of the decline 

 of the birth-rate of the community in various sections, 

 which, by reason of ability of various sorts, have attained 

 to positions of distinction and responsibility, and are 

 included in the various biographical handbooks and 

 works of reference. Such families possess a large pro- 

 portion of the selected and inherited capacity of the 

 country, and the environment provided by their home 

 traditions should be of great value in making their 

 latent ability available for national and social purposes. 



Let us first consider the class of persons represented 

 by the stable landed and aristocratic families described 

 in any complete Peerage and Baronetage. A hundred 

 fertile marriages for each decade from 1831 to 1890 

 have been taken consecutively from those families who 



