if not entirely, the result of deliberate volition,” and that “a volitional regulation of the marriage state is now ubiquitous throughout England and Wales, among, apparently, a large majority of the population,” the results are brought forward of a detailed inquiry carried out by the Fabian Society.  This inquiry covered 316 families, selected at random from all parts of Great Britain, and belonging to all sections of the middle class.  The results are carefully analyzed, and it is found that seventy-four families were unlimited, and two hundred and forty-two voluntarily limited.  When, however, the decade 1890-99 is taken by itself as the typical period, it is found that of 120 marriages, 107 were limited, and only thirteen unlimited, while of these thirteen, five were childless at the date of the return.  In this decade, therefore, only seven unlimited fertile marriages are reported, out of a total of 120.

What is true of Great Britain is true of all other civilized countries, in the highest degree true of the most civilized countries, and it finds expression in the well-known phenomenon of the decline of the birthrate.  In modern times, this movement of decline began in France, producing a slow but steady diminution in the annual number of births, and in France the movement seems now to be almost, or quite, arrested.  But it has since taken place in all other progressive countries, notably in the United States, in Canada, in Australia, and in New Zealand, as well as in Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.  In England, it has been continuous since 1877.  Of the great countries, Russia is the only one in which it has not yet taken place, and among the masses of the Russian population we find less education, more poverty, a higher deathrate, and a greater amount of disease, than in any other great, or even small, civilized country.

It is sometimes said, indeed, that the decline of the birthrate is not entirely due to the voluntary control of procreation.  It is undoubtedly true that certain other elements, common under civilized conditions, such as the postponement of marriage in women to a comparatively late age, tend to diminish the size of the family.  But when all such allowances have been made, the decline is still found to be real and large.  This has been shown, for instance, by the statistical analyses made by Arthur Newsholme and T.H.C.  Stevenson, and by G. Yule, both published in Journal Royal Statistical Society, April, 1906.

Some have supposed that, since the Catholic Church forbids incomplete sexual intercourse, this movement for the control of procreation will involve a relatively much greater increase among Catholic than among non-Catholic populations.  This, however, is only correct under certain conditions.  It is quite true that in Ireland there has been no fall in the birthrate, and that the fall is