Now urbanisation is going on even more rapidly in Germany than in England.  The death-rate in England and Wales rose from 21 in 1850 to 23.5 in 1854; after sharp fluctuations it reached 23.7 in 1864; since then it has declined to its present figure (in normal times) of 14.  In Prussia after the war of 1870 and the small-pox epidemic of 1871, there has been a steady fall from 26 to 17.3 (German Empire in 1911).  The net increase is only slightly larger (in proportion to the population) in Germany than in England; and the increase in our great colonies, especially in Australasia, is much higher than in Germany.  There is therefore no reason to suppose that a rapid alteration is going on to our disadvantage.

It is widely believed that the Roman Catholic Church, by sternly forbidding the artificial limitation of families, is increasing its numbers at the expense of the non-Catholic populations.  To some extent this is true.  The Prussian figures for 1895-1900 give the number of children per marriage as: 

Both parents Catholic 5
Both parents Protestant 4
Both parents Jews 3.7

An examination of the entries in ‘Who’s Who’ gives about the same proportion for well-to-do families in England.  The Catholic birth-rate of the Irish is nearly 40.[21] The French-Canadians are among the most prolific races in the world.  On the other hand, their infant mortality is very high, and it is said that French-Canadian parents take these losses philosophically.  It is quite a different question whether it is ultimately to the advantage of a nation which desires to increase its numbers to profess the Roman Catholic religion.  The high birth-rates are all in unprogressive Catholic populations.  When a Catholic people begins to be educated, the priests apparently lose their influence upon the habits of the laity, and a rapid decline in the births at once sets in.  The most advanced countries which did not accept the Reformation, France and Belgium, are precisely those in which parental prudence has been carried almost to excess.  We must also remember that the Dutch Boers, who are Protestants, but who live under simple conditions not unlike those of the French-Canadians, are equally prolific, as were our own colonists in the United States before that country was industrialised.  The advantages in numbers gained by Roman Catholicism are likely to be confined to half-empty countries, where there is really room for more citizens, and where social ambition and the love of comfort are the chief motives for restricting the family.

The population of a settled country cannot be increased at will; it depends on the supply of food.  The choice is between a high birth-rate combined with a high death-rate, and a low birth-rate with a low death-rate.  The great saving of life which has been effected during the last fifty years carries with it the necessity of restricting the births.  The next question to be considered is how this restriction