HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 251 



tricts that are called slums. But tlie old cities were all slums. 

 The great increase of modern city life is due not to the degeneracy 

 of the race, as is often foolishly supposed, but to improved sanitary 

 conditions and improved health. The modern city grows by its 

 own productive force as well as by immigration and has ceased to 

 be a death trap for the people. 



Rapid increase of population is due to cleanliness, thrift, intel- 

 ligence, prosperity, contentment, and happiness, because these 

 things preserve and lengthen life. As a rule, civilized people are 

 apt to be blessed in these particulars even when their birth-rate 

 is somewhat low. But it is not true, as is often supposed, that the 

 more civilized have necessarily a low birth-rate. Ireland and 

 Greece are countries of an inferior order of civilization, and their 

 birth-rates are respectively 277 and 24 per thousand inhabit- 

 ants ; while the birth-rate of England is 33'3 per thousand, and of 

 Holland 34*8. 



But we must not rest the question on mere generalizations. 

 Civilization includes many things and is a broad term. Increase 

 of population is accomplished by different causes, and not in every 

 instance by the same cause. Each instance should be considered 

 in all its surroundings before any general principles are applied. 

 Mere sentiment, opinions, and ideas often affect the growth of 

 population as much as the price of corn and meat. The failure of 

 the French to increase rapidly is generally believed to be caused 

 by an almost morbid desire on the part of French parents to 

 start their sons in life with a fortune and give their daughters a 

 dowry on their marriage. The size of these portions becomes a 

 matter of pride, and great importance is attached to them even 

 among the middle classes. The fewer the children the larger the 

 portions. This condition is generally believed by modern French 

 statesmen to have been brought about by the law of 1793 which 

 restricted the freedom of leaving property by will and compelled 

 parents to divide their estates evenly among their children. 

 On the other hand, the English feeling is just the reverse of this. 

 The Saxon race has always been remarkable for its love of facing 

 life single-handed, and battling with the chances of the world. 

 English parents of all classes have seldom any hesitation, and 

 often a pride, in bringing up more children than their fortune will 

 enable to live with ease. The thought that the eldest child will 

 have all their money and the rest have to begin life anew, or 

 that all will have to make their own way in the colonies, which 

 would fill a French family with horror, is rather pleasant to Eng- 

 lish parents. 



Any one who will read the history of the Know-Nothing move- 

 ment in pamphlets, speeches, and deeds of that time can hardly 

 fail to be convinced that hundreds of thousands of native Amer- 



