The writer had no anticipation of the triumph of
Liberalism, then so near, and Evidently expected that Mr. Chamberlain
would carry the country for his policy. The tract was also issued in a
shilling edition on superior paper with a preface by the author, and it
is the only one of his publications which has failed to sell freely.
* * * * *
At this period we had a number of Committees appointed to investigate
various problems, and one of them, which had for its reference the
Birth-rate and Infant Mortality, produced a report of more that
temporary significance. When the Society was formed the Malthusian
hypothesis held the field unchallenged and the stock argument against
Socialism was that it would lead to universal misery by removing the
beneficent checks on the growth of population, imposed by starvation
and disease upon the lowest stratum of society. Since the year 1876 the
birth-rate had declined, and gradually the fear of over-population,
which had saddened the lives of such men as John Stuart Mill, began to
give way to the much less terrifying but still substantial fear of
under-population, caused either by race degeneracy or race suicide. At
that period the former of the two was the accepted explanation, and only
by vague hints did scientific statisticians indicate that there might be
or perhaps must be something else than "natural" causes for the decline.
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