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The fact is of no small moment, not only to St. Marylebone, but
to every part of Britain and her colonies. The opinions of those
who are competent to decide on the causes of this decline in the
birth rate, are briefly to the following effect:—
1.— Variation in the Marriage Rate.
2.— The later age at which women marry.
3.— Variation in the proportion of women at child-bearing
age in the population.
4.— The deliberate restriction of child-bearing on the part
of parents.
There is no lack of educated opinion that the last-named
cause may pretty safely be assumed to be that which is operating
with greatest detriment to the increase of the population. The
matter is not one which is easy to discuss in a public report; but,
at the same time, one must risk the giving of offence by speaking
out quite plainly. The statement made above is almost
invariably countered by the argument of over-population. As a
comment on this one may adduce a statement made by Dr. Farr,
one of the greatest statisticians that we have ever had, and
recorded by him so far back as 1842. Dr. Farr then said that
the rate of progression of population since the first census
1801, was such, that if it should continue the population would
have doubled in 1850. He proceeds "Double the number of
"families will exist, and must be supplied with subsistence
"in England, but there will also be double the number of men
"to create subsistence and capital for her families, to man her
"fleets, to defend her inviolate hearths, to work mines and
"manufactures, to open new regions of colonisation, and double
"the number of minds to discover new truths, to confer the
"benefits and to enjoy the felicity of which human nature is
"susceptible."
These words, written nearly seventy years ago, have proved
those of a true prophet, and there can surely be no reason to
think that they will not, under proper social conditions, be still
true in another hundred years. Scientific advances, quicker