"Although there is not a greater population than that
required by the wealth which is being accumulated, there is,
however, a very bad distribution of work, which weighs heavily
upon the one class while keeping the other unoccupied. In
this way one part of the population performs the work which
all should do, and capitalism avails itself of the industrial
reserve, that is of the great body of the unemployed, to
compel those who work to accept a slender salary." (Nitti.)
Hence has arisen most, if not all, of our present-day troubles.
Men are obliged to take what wages are grudgingly doled
out or starve. Formerly it was possible for a small trader
to earn a competence ; now it is impossible, for all trade
is passing from individual power of acquisition into that of
large syndicates and companies. Even so long ago as the
year i88o, Cardinal Manning wrote: "In no country, and in
no age, has the world ever yet seen such commercial activity
and prosperity as that of England. But in the midst of im-
measurable wealth is a want which the poorest country of
Europe scarcely knows. The inequalities of our social state,
the chasms which separate classes, and the abrupt and harsh



WITH REGARD TO POPULATION



107



contrasts of soft and suffering lots, unless they be redressed by
humility and charity, sympathy and self-denial, are dangerous
to society and to our spiritual welfare."

I hope to deal with the matter of the multiplication of the
unfit under marriage. Let us deal here with the increase of
wealth as regards population and distribution. The estimates
of public wealth, by the most experienced economists, show
that the capital of the United Kingdom has doubled in forty
years : —





Estimates


Wealth of the






United Kingdom.
1800.
