Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



is prepared to pay for its comforts and might 

 bring much profit to the island, is discouraged 

 from visiting it. 



If we seek for the cause of this poverty and 

 backwardness, our investigations always lead by 

 one route or another to the vicious fiscal system 

 of which I have given some examples. The 

 concessions, the monopolies, the extravagant 

 duties, the sacrifice of the community to the 

 supposed interest of a class — such are the 

 means by which the State forces poverty on 

 itself and its citizens. 



It is frequently said, and by some for whose 

 judgment I have much respect, that the poverty 

 of the inhabitants is due to over-population. 

 So it may be under the present fiscal system ; 

 but granted one which did not discourage 

 export trade, a large population would be 

 a blessing and not a curse. In Madeira the 

 people are very prolific ; there is no question 

 of the declining birth-rate, which is pro- 

 ducing pessimistic forecasts of the extinction 

 of Western civilization ; and owing to the 

 healthy outdoor life infant mortality is less 

 than might be expected ; — the greater the 

 reason why the working class should not be 



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