M R. BALFOUR the philosopher is also Mr. Balfour the Premier,
and Englishmen therefore read with the keenest interest what he has to say upon a question so important as the deterioration of the British race, and one, too, upon which there has been so much discussion. They refuse for the most part, as " practical men," to believe that the two characters can be wholly separate in one individual, and regard the thoughtful speculations of the philosopher, even if uttered in dreamy mood, as keys to the action which the Premier will, or at all events may, favour when the time arrives. So judged, Mr. Balfour's address of Friday week to the Anthro- pological Section of the British Association on the alleged deterioration of our race will produce, we fear, a general feeling of disappointment. There is a trace— though it is only a trace—of conviction as to the facts, but there is none as to the possibility of any remedy. Mr. Balfour is evidently inclined to believe—he is not, as we understand him, quite sure—that the city life which is absorbing so large a proportion of our people produces gradually physical deterioration. The new generation, especially in London, is rather smaller ; its " Germanic characteristics "—light hair, for example—begin to dis- appear, possibly from more frequent crossing with the dark-haired tribes of our " composite people " ; and it is suggested rather than expressly affirmed that these signs of a Southern rather than a Northern pedigree are marks of inferiority. Assuming the facts, upon which we have a word to say below, what remedy has Mr. Balfour to suggest ? Apparently none. The ener- getic and active among countrymen will, he admits, continue to be drawn towards the cities and their injurious influence. It has been suggested that we may prevent deterioration by preventing overcrowding; but that, says Mr. Balfour, is not the case. "I myself was brought up in the country, a small corner of the Lowlands south of the Firth of Forth, where the largest specimens of the British race are or have been produced, and I remember that in those days the agricultural labourer and his family —a big family very often—lived in one small cottage, or even in . one room. Yet there was no deterioration." Clearly but little is to be hoped from Mr. Balfour for the favourite plan of social reformers,—the rehousing of the people with State or municipal aid. He does not even believe in the end, much less in the means. Is the remedy to be sought, then, in better food and more air ? No, says Mr. Balfour ; the urban population is better fed than the rural, and there is ventilation in towns. Or, finally, shall we find the remedy in that universal panacea, more education ? No, replies Mr. Balfour, " for the progeny of every man who wins his way from the lowest ranks into the middle class is likely to diminish because of later marriages in that class. Hence it seems that, as the State so contrives education as to allow this rising ' from a, lower to an upper class, by so much does it do something to diminish the actual quality of the breed. It is, of course, not an argument against the State's attitude towards education in this respect ; but there is, or seems to be, no escape from the rather melancholy conclusion that every- thing done towards opening up careers to those of the lower classes does something towards the deterioration of that race."
The Premier has, in fact, no hope ; and neither should we have if it were not that we are as full of doubts as he is ; but our doubts tate a different direction. We doubt, for example, almost all his facts about rehousing, ventilation, and food. They are opposed to the most certain fact of our modern history,—viz., that the class which is well fed and well housed, which enjoys fresh air, and which is, on the whole, educated either through teaching or through its occupations, is distinctly stronger, bigger, and healthier than it ever was. As regards women this is admitted on all hands ; and as regards men we believe the doctors would be nearly unanimous, though they might add the rider that some modern conditions of life, and especially the hourly impact of exciting news from all parts of the world, are somewhat injurious to the tranquillity of the nerves: Is it not, therefore, nearly certain that if we could place the city masses under the same conditions as the well-to-do we should introduce among them also the tendency to physical improvement ? We may not be able to do it. We ourselves believe that the rehousing of the poor in an effective way is a task for which the national fortune is as yet inadequate, and doubt whether education makes much differeuce in physique ; but surely we can see the ideal and strive towards it, whether through sanitary laws, or by calling the people " back to the land," or by making military training and carefully thought out gymnastics obligatory on all growing boys. To sit still and philosophise on the doubts about over- crowding, about the energising properties of good food, and about the caution which education is supposed to induce in bachelors and maidens seems to us a little feeble ; yet that is the teaching of Mr. Balfour's address. If all men are educated, the race may not multiply so fast, but it will be healthier, if only because it will know some- thing of the laws of health. If all are well paid, they will in the end learn to cook, and it is bad cooking which makes the food " bad," that is, innutritious—the children who come into the country from the slums once a year all pine for pickles—and if all rooms are spacious and healthy the grand temptation towards drink will be at least greatly reduced. As for the gradual darkening of the race, there is no proof that black hair is a sign of inferior physique, the evidence bearing on the question being still very im- perfect. We cannot but believe we are on the right lines, though, as usual, much of our effort is baffled by new sources of mischief opened up by our very successes. The children being saved, the population multiplies almost faster than the means of subsistence; and the old resource of Nature, the extinction of the weakly, has been suspended, to the great increase in each generation in the number of the failures.
We wish some of the investigators into social facts would one day give us their opinion as to the mental effect of city life. The old notion of the people was that it greatly increased mental power, that the " cit." was distinctly brighter, shrewder, and better qualified to think than the yokel" ; and we should like to know whether this is alto- gether true. That it seems true may be admitted at once, for the citizen is undoubtedly quicker, more easily taught, and less opinionated than the man of the countryside; but we question if it is true to the extent that is imagined. In the Army, no doubt, Londoners succeed, the proportion of the non-commissioned who are London born being very remarkable; but employers are said to prefer countrymen, and those whose duty takes them among factory hands say that the women, at least, are distinctly less intelligent than the women of the cottages, possibly because their work is much less varied. No Yorkshireman would acknowledge for a moment that a Londoner of the same grade as himself was his intellectual superior, and those who know labourers best think most of their powers of thought. Powers of expression they seldom have, but the village artisans are at least the equals in thinking of their city-bred rivals, and less limited in their mental range. There seems little reason why the inhabitant of a back street should be the mental superior of the villager, who sees, be it remembered, as much society, though it is less varied in kind. We should like to know what upon this point is the testimony of Board-school masters and mistresses, for until this is known the effects of city life, as compared with those of country life, cannot be com- pletely understood. We incline to believe that the effect of city life on the intelligence has been overrated ; but the evidence is far from perfect ; indeed, is as imperfect as the evidence about the effect of generations of culture upon physique. The world has a notion that brain and body are, in some degree at least, antagonistic ; but in all countries with a conscription the average officer tends to be bigger as well as quicker-moving than the average man. In any case, the comparison between country life and town life, upon which all modern discussions on deterioration seem to be based, cannot be fairly considered unless we take mental strength as well as physical strength into the account.
THE SOCIALISTS AT AMSTERDAM.
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