he Malthusian League
justified the restriction of births even in Ontario. 'When Ontario did
increase its birthrate, its deathrate increased; it gained no increase
of population thereby, so I am absolutely definite in that case.' But
the Superintendent of Statistics, Dr. Stevenson, promptly pricked that
bubble. The alleged increase of the deathrate in Ontario was due to a
miscalculation. The increase in 1911 of the population was
underestimated. The population in Ontario increased in 1911 to
2,523,000; the birthrate went up from 21.10 to 24.7, and the deathrate
came down 14.0 to 12.6. So far from the increased birthrate in Ontario
producing an increased deathrate, it brought with it a diminished
deathrate. At the touch of reality the edifice of the Neo-Malthusian
crumbles into sand. He is not deficient in patriotism; for he says so.
{37} 'We probably should get more colonising and more efficient
colonisers if we had a smaller birthrate,' declared the secretary of
the Malthusian League. Empty cradles are going to populate the Empire!
There is surely no limit to the faculty of human self-deception.

III

Though the arguments of the Neo-Malthusians be fallacious, and the
basis of their teaching illusionary, yet they have gained the
allegiance of a vast portion of the population of the Empire. A
birthrate lowered by half in some cities, and by a third over the whole
of the nation, testifies to the withering blight which has passed over
the race. In a little while Britain will be as France--its population
stationary. We have yet a little way to go ere we have reduced the
birthrate to the level of Australia, 10 per thousand; but we are on the
way to it. When that day draws near there will be no more emigrants
available for the territories that we hold; {38} and the door of
Australia must open to the yellow races. A race that chooses death can
no longer shape or mould the issues of life.

The statistics which abound in the Report are as the ringing of a
passing bell. But far more alarming than the mere statement that the
race is now sacrificing a third of its children is the fact that this
limitation has not yet come to its full development. The stage which
is now attained is that a vast majority of the educated classes
sacrifice the race to their self-indulgence. The figures given in a
booklet entitled _The Small Family System_ show that 'in the Fabian
Society in about 90 per cent. of the more recent marr