IS ENGLAND OVER POPULATED ?

Bruce Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2265, 15 May 1891, Page 4

IS ENGLAND OVER POPULATED ?

Few faritriare more fe'mairk'able tyl the erxortuqus. increase, oft-jtb,e. T pop\j|lj tion of• this country. v.iWbile Ir©'aiS promises in the-remote:'future to }M come uninhabited, Sol" steadily) and li painfully do herpeo^le'/d^ndliß awall and i^ptland has inpr,e,'aßfs the numbfl of her song and daughters to one.hai|l Eoglaud has doubled ber populatijll witbin the last 'fifty/ years. In til space of a B^g'e lifeline hall become great cities,rani tbe asphalt|| and he penny 'biis covet the track? II the furrow and the plough! Advall ta<?es and luxuries, stick as our gran; 1 fathers never dreamt of, have bee 1 brought witbm the reach of all but \\ 1 veiv poor, and the general standard < llcomfort has gone up in an' extraofdit m ary degree. „ M With all these grounds for, congratj I lation, h>wever, there, is one hug § drawback. Nev^r were our large to\? £ § bo overcrowdod. Never, were thei I such numbers without wor.k. In tl I professions, learned! and unlearned, i i the shop, in the warehouse, ia [\ i office., the -same dismal story of topntjjfi nay fifty applications for' each vacanJi is repeated. IS Our public libraries are besiege!! from early morning till late at nigja hy anxious ' readers''-of the advertijJß ment columns in the daily newspapenjH Men may be f engaged by .the haudre|B who, for the wretched pittance ofjß shilling a day, will tramp the gattJi of our streets, bearing placards cja their shoulders. „..',''.. || It is therpfore not surprising tbillg seeing the hunger and destitution c{| our big cities, ma^y people will ssli themselves whether^ after ''all, [the }| | creaee of our population, which tt] i cominsr ceusus will doubtless attest it | a matter for unalloyed national cot| | ejratulntion. Where there are so marf: S empty mouths, empty pdcbefs, at | such a scarcity of woifk, the addition cKn several millions to our numbers is k M altopftber a reassuring fact. Ej In fifteen years or thoreabouts thi^f immense army trill be thdhderingtiSra the gates of the professions, surgiosl over into evorv trade arid calling, attfil flooding our offices and shop's in numbeSi altogether too vast fo supply Mm vacancies caused by death and retit#;| ment. Each and every one* of the||l will have had the benefits of education || and will be competent to take thei; | seats in countins-hbuse and office. I Nor is the outlook in the professiotl 1 one whit rao^o cheerful. At the prtjjf sent time the church swarmn witll clergymen for whom there are no pnl I pits. The bar is crammed to suffow I tion with learned young gentl^m^n win I attend tho Courts in full war paint o! 1 wig and gown, but whose earnings an i not sufficient to keep the a r omsait; 1 wiga in curl. As for doctors, theiij i prospects are simply doplorahle. Wf' I have it on high authority that the Hi - i pensers of lotions and pills are enter; i me the profession at a rate which shofOtt an increase of five hundred, per annnm^' Look where will, turn where we maj.p | it i-3 almost impnessibleto name a bnsH | ness or calling in which profits are not; | being cut down, owing to excessive ;i competition. 1 That the struggle for exiet'ence wil i grow kpener every year, and ths rate' ? of pavraont for all sorts of skilled aai unskilled labour decrease, is, we fear j only too sure to be the result ■ f tb; ; large increase in population which dm be looko i for when tha results of the , census of 1891 are made, known.