The Population Question. 
[September, 
508 
the struggle for existence suppressed between the individuals 
of the crops or the herds which we are rearing, but the 
watchful husbandman is ever seeking to root out every weed, 
to extirpate every kind of vermin which seeks to compete. 
It is not too much, then, to say that wherever he is able 
Man stamps out all competition, all struggle for existence, 
save, on the one hand, in wild animals and plants, and, on 
the other hand, in himself ! Can we doubt that the results 
of limitation of number, in accordance with the means ot 
support, would prove as beneficial among mankind as they 
are found to do among the lower animals and among 
Pl pfmust not be supposed that we consider the struggle for 
existence an unmixed evil, or that we would advocate, were 
it possible, its absolute suppression ; but we hold that it has 
far passed the limits within which it can stimulate to healthy 
action, and has entered upon its destructive phase. I his is 
to be observed with heat, light,— in short, with all the re- 
quisites of organic existence. Up to a certain point they are 
necessary ; beyond that, as it has often been proved, they 
are deadly. Just so with the struggle for existence. Where 
that struggle has been sufficiently intensified by the intro- 
duction of new weeds or voracious animals, species begin to 
disappear. Just so with competition among mankind. We 
see all types of human beings save the capitalist and the 
“ working-man ’’—taking the word in its conventional sense 
—tending to disappear. Hence progress in Science and the 
Arts must come to a stand-still if the class of leisurely pio- 
fessional men and brain-workers generally is rooted out. 
What would Darwin have effected had he been flung into a 
competitive life, — chained, e.g., to the merchant’s desk, like 
Prometheus to the Caucasus ? Nor, we will venture to say, 
could he ever have been born with the aptitudes and the 
powers which he actually possessed if his forefathers had 
been men of bustle and worry. , 
Leaving these considerations to be ruminated on by pro- 
moters of competition, we proceed to the great practical 
difficulty which lies in the way of Malthusianism. Unless 
universally adopted it must be a failure. Let us suppose 
that some one nation, some one race existing in any country 
along with other races, or some one class of society, limits 
the rate of its increase, whilst neighbouring nations, other 
races, or classes of society go on multiplying at their present 
rate : what must be the result ? Simply this— that the 
Malthusian nation, race, or class effaces itself, and in any 
contest, whether waged with the bayonet or the ballot-box, 
it goes to the wall. 
