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16
1907]
population, the fertility of its married women remains practically constant; it
is so in Austria, in Spain, and among French Canadians. It seems, then, to
be due to a matter of religious observance, for without doubt the Roman
Catholic Church looks frowningly on attempts to prevent the advent of
children by the use of preventive measures by its members.
This is a serious subject for the Anglo-Saxon race, and if the paramount
cause be as indicated—and it seems tolerably certain—it may lead to its
gradual extinction, for it must not be forgotten that animal organs which are
not allowed to fulfil their functions gradually lose their power to perform them,
and so in several generations may became practically useless. This question
is then not only a national one, but a moral one, and with this phase of it the
Protestant Churches should deal. It is to be regretted that those passages in
the marriage service of the Church of England which declare what marriage was
ordained for are now often omitted by many clergymen officiating at marriages,
as being too indelicate for modern gentle ears to hear, but which their forefathers
ever since "The First Prayer Book of Edward VI." was compiled, in
1549, have heard without interruption and without any feeling of shame, and
who also, in the old-time language, "duely consideryng the causes for the
whiche matrimonie was ordeined," entered into the "honourable estate," and
were instructed that "one cause was the procreacion of children, to be
brought up in the feare and nurture of the Eord, and prayse of God." When
clergy of the Church omit this passage in its more modern and slightly modified
form, they do a wrong to their Church and a wrong to their people and to the
nation, and marriage ceases to be "a remedie agaynst sinne," or an institution
" to avoid fornicacion." There is then a clear duty indicated to the clergy, and
it is to be hoped that the national church at least will endeavour to see that
its own teachings from the earliest dawn of the Church of England are not set
at naught.
This is a difficult matter to discuss and to deal with, and, indeed, many
scientific men fear to give offence by speaking out plainly, lest they should be
charged with indelicacy. It may be that as truth is strong, it will prevail;
but nevertheless, it behoves those who are in a position of responsibility and
who know what these causes may lead the nation to, to speak out with no
uncertain voice, for undoubtedly this wilful determination to have no children
will in the end break up the "family," which has been so characteristic a
feature of Anglo-Saxon life from the earliest times. Persons, too, will come to the
conclusion that if there need be no children in the married state, so, also, there
need be none in a less binding association, and so the nation will become gradually
less moral. Let the history of Greece, Byzantium and Rome be a warning to