It may be truly urged that, at some time or another, the present increase of population must come to an end, for as new countries become filled up, the limits of subsistence must at last be reached. The discovery of America, Australia, and the opening up of vast tracts of country in Africa and Asia, has for some hundreds of years permitted certain European nations to increase their birth-rate above their death-rate, and we are so accustomed to such a condition of things that we do not realise that it is exceptional, and that countries, once they have reached a stable condition, only permit of the maintenance of a given number of population. Increased care and knowledge in agriculture may, as time goes on, gradually allow of a slight increase in the number of the inhabitants, but this will be slight indeed, as compared with the present ratio of increase. We may therefore rest assured that, at some time or another, we shall have to reduce the birth-rate to that of the death-rate,[31] but we are certainly not called upon to do so at present. It is the experience of many men of practical knowledge that at the present time any healthy Englishman, who is fairly capable, industrious and sober, will be able to earn a living for himself, wife, and family. He may have to face a possibility of temporary misfortune, and even catastrophe, in the event of sickness, but his chances are as good, and the comforts that he can obtain for his wage are greater than those of wage-earners in other countries. We are not, therefore, called upon at present to diminish a population which, by its increase, has been enabled to possess itself of a large portion of the inhabitable world, and upon whose future increase will depend in great measure our faculty for keeping it; but we are called upon to see that this increase is derived from the best, and not from the worst, members of the community. It will be most disastrous not only to our Empire, whose strength depends in great measure upon the numbers of our citizens, but also to the quality of the race, if the more prudent and capable are bred out of and eliminated from the community. These, in the nature of things, will be the first to limit their fertility, no doubt to their individual advantage, but to the detriment of the race at large. The work on population by Malthus reads like a modern book. His contributions to social, and his stimulus to biological science can never be underestimated, but his advocacy of those measures which insure relative sterility, such as late marriages, etc., will lead to the final extermination of those who follow his advice. The world will fall to the share of those who produce most offspring. Let us be sure that in our own nation it shall not be to the offspring of the deteriorated, but that the generations that succeed us shall possess those qualities of mind and body which we admire most among our fellowmen, and which will only be preserved to the race if those possessing them