THE BIRTH-RATE 63 



that Roman Catholic families were less affected by this 

 decline than others. A special inquiry showed that 

 30 marriages recorded in Whos Who and the Landed 

 Gentry^ between families known to be of the Roman 

 Catholic faith, gave an average of 6' 6 children to 

 a marriage even in the period from 1871 to 1890. 

 The significance of this result lies in the fact that the 

 Roman Church is known to discountenance any artificial 

 restriction in the number of children in a family. 

 Together with the similar result for the children of the 

 Protestant clergy, it shows that the decline in the birth- 

 rate is not due to any lessened natural fertility, but is 

 due to voluntary restriction. At all periods small 

 families and childless couples occur from natural causes. 

 It is the abnormal number of both which constitutes 

 the new and sinister fact, and shows that a voluntary 

 restriction of the birth-rate is going on. 



We have now passed in review several representative 

 samples of what may be described as the successful 

 classes in all ranks of life. The thrifty skilled artisan, 

 the prominent professional man, the landowner of 

 good family, have all halved their output of children 

 in the course of the last forty years. The few excep- 

 tions to the rule serve but to emphasize the lesson to 

 be drawn, that the decline is voluntary ; that the 

 stocks we have passed in review are not increasing, or 

 are even diminishing, in number because they do not 

 wish to have the normal number of children, and know 

 how to prevent it. 



We must now turn to the other side of the picture. 

 The decline we have traced in the successful classes is 



