The Increase of Town Populations. 85 



the curtain which shuts out our view of their domestic life 

 it may too often be seen that improvident marriages are 

 the cause of fully one-half of the drinking that goes on. 

 A man tired and worn out with toil, living with his family 

 in say one or two rooms, can in many instances look upon 

 his home only as a den seething with children, perchance 

 sick or ailing, a poor wife crushed in her comparative 

 youth through child-bearing ; health, spirits, temper, all 

 gone, her life hardly less than a burden to her. The 

 man's home becomes in time little else than a burden to 

 him. Is it to be wondered at if eventually they both be- 

 take themselves to bask in the garish light of the nearest 

 public house — the devil's palace — and there seek the 

 solace of oblivion in drink ? Amongst the great if not the 

 gieatest questions of social reform this one of marriage 

 should rank first, and the clergy should help us here. In- 

 stead of encouraging early marriages in the light of the 

 married living a life of sanctity, they might bear in mind 

 that like all hypothetical ventures there are at least two 

 issues to this, one of which is the future condition of any 

 parties whom they have the power to influence as 

 regards marriage. And it would not be too much to 

 expe6l the State to interfere in the following ways : 



1st. A man should before marrying, be expe6led to 

 give some proof that he is in a position socially to sup- 

 port a probable family. 



2nd. The State through its Public Health Officers 

 should organise a system of sele6lion as regards the health 

 and general constitution, and even family history, of 

 those persons who desire to commit matrimony. 



3rd. The State might take in hand some measure of 

 insuring the lives of married men in a general National 



