124 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



effect of the Great War on papulation. For Western and Central Europe 

 it must, I think, have produced a considerable net loss. For Eussia 

 one can hardly guess ; but her population is so largely rural and grew so 

 amazingly fast before 1914, that it would not surprise me very much to 

 learn that, with all her miseries, it had been maintained. 



The gix)wth of population in Europe after 1815 coincided with the 

 spread of the first industrial and agi'icultural revolution outwards from 

 the United Kingdom. The world was learning new ways to feed and 

 clothe itself; and it continued to learn all through the century. I 

 myself do not suppose that the age of discovery is at an end, so our 

 troubles may be eased as time goes on ; and although I have not the 

 slightest wish that population should ever again grow so fast as it grew 

 in Europe during the nineteenth century, I see no reason why a moderate 

 rate of growth should not be resumed, in a few years at latest. But 

 jierhaps I have already committed prophecy, or half prophecy, more 

 than is altogether wise for one in my position. 



