The Population Question. [September, 
506 
— whether, as originally proposed by Ma ^us, by 
means or by physical methods as suggest y 
means, uy y > we urpose showing 
cessors — we do not nere enter. j otrninst 
the nullity of the objeaions currently uiged against 
-estriaion of population, and then calling attention to a 
praaical difficulty which no Malthusian advocate has sue- 
06 A shly 1 plea^sometimes met with is that, since Malthus 
wrote hfs celebrated work, regions scarcely known such a 
the north-west of the Dominion-have proved to be of great 
importance as food-producing regions! But it water is 
running into a cistern at the rate of 5000 gallons per h ^ 
and escaping only at the rate of 4500 gallons ldl f e ^ 
show that from an error in measurement the contents ot t 
cistern are rather larger than it had been supposed Such 
a discovery may delay, but cannot prevent the ultimate 
"The same considerations apply to the saving, of food- 
which is equivalent to an increase of food ; producing area f 
bv reforms and improvements in the growing and cooking of 
god Such steps" may for a time better, the condi ion of 
mankind; but if population constantly increases it m 
necessarily overtake the improved food supply. 
The wildest of all contentions is that put forward by Mi. 
Henry George, who seems to think that the world could 
maintain a praftically infinite number of men if its P| “ducts 
were only more fairly divided. At all events he asserts that, 
on account of the indestrudtibility of matter and of energy, 
it could support a thousand billions of inhabitants as well 
as it now does a thousand millions. It is difficult tc i rea tse 
the mental condition of the man who founds on such data 
such a conclusion. Let us take an easy example . Hjeis 
a plot of ground sufficient, say, for ten or a hundred apple- 
trees. All indestruaibility of matter and . e " e ^ " otw ^ 
standing, we find it vain to grow in it ten million 01 a 
hundred million such trees. . a . 
The properties appealed to by Mr. George determine the 
number^ of successive generations which may flourish on our 
planet ; but upon the number of individuals of which each 
veneration may consist they have no possible beann & . 
mav rest assured that all attempts to hnd a permanent solu* 
tion of the population question by enactments on the tenure 
ofTand, schemes for confiscation, and the like must be ever 
doomed to failure. That a finite area cannot continue to 
support a perpetually growing population is an elementa y 
faCt against which it is vain to stiuggle. 
