ipation 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.
To the Society it seemed an all-important question. Was our race to
perish by sterility, and if so, was sterility due to wealth and luxury
or to poverty and disease? Or was the cause of the decline a voluntary
limitation of families? We determined, as a first step, to form some
sort of statistical estimate of the extent of voluntary restriction. We
thought, and, as the event proved, thought rightly, that our members
would be willing to assist us in this delicate enquiry. They were a
sample of the population, selected in a manner which bore no sort of
relation to the question at issue, and if we could get returns from them
indicating their personal practice in the matter, we might have some
clue to the facts. It turned out that the result was far more startling
and far more conclusive than we suspected.

In November, 1905, carefully drafted enquiry forms were sent out to all
members of the Society except unmarried women, so arranged as to allow
exact answers to be given to the questions without disclosure of the
name or handwriting of the deponent. Of