i8o THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



the number of their offspring. This conclusion has 

 also been reached by the Registrar-General as the result 

 of his returns.^ 



Burke has well said that you cannot draw up an 

 indictment against a nation. Nearly the whole of the 

 successful classes of the British Isles are pursuing 

 steadily a certain course of action, quite oblivious or 

 regardless of its ultimate effects on the community. 

 Clearly they must have some grounds, however mis- 

 taken, for thinking that they are acting wisely and 

 rightly, or, at all events, some excuse which reconciles 

 their conscience to conduct followed for what they 

 regard as their own advantage. 



A full discussion of the subject is impossible. In 

 this place we propose to consider only the main 

 point — Why the classes in question wish to limit so 

 closely the number of their offspring. But, after all, 

 this is the essential problem. If the preference for small 

 families were not existent, if people did not wish to 

 have few children, the birth-rate would not have shown 

 such a tremendous diminution in any circumstances. 

 To realize the possibility of a course of action would 

 not lead to its adoption, unless the desire to follow 

 it were already existent, or ready to be called into 

 being. Thus, to limit our inquiry to the reasons 

 which lead people to wish for few children is merely 

 to concentrate attention on the real cause of the decline 

 in the birth-rate. 



It is evident that no one cause can be sufficient 

 in itself to explain a phenomenon which affects so 



^ See Blue-book on Public Health and Social Conditions, 1909, p. 5. 



