But the Sea Wife s childbearing is about done.
The stock is running out, and the planet is filling
up. The wives of her sons may carry on the breed,
but her work is past. The erstwhile men of Eng
land are now the men of Australia, of Africa, of
America. England has sent forth the best she
breeds for so long, and has destroyed those that
remained so fiercely, that little remains for her to
do but to sit down through the long nights and
gaze at royalty on the wall.

The true British merchant seaman has passed
away. The merchant service is no longer a recruit
ing ground for such sea dogs as fought with Nelson
at Trafalgar and the Nile. Foreigners largely man
the merchant ships, though Englishmen still con
tinue to officer them and to prefer foreigners for ard.
In South Africa the colonial teaches the Islander
how to shoot, and the officers muddle and blunder;
while at home the street people play hysterically at
mafficking, and the War Office lowers the stature
for enlistment.

It could not be otherwise. The most complacent
Britisher cannot hope to draw off the life blood, and
underfeed, and keep it up forever. The average
Mrs. Thomas Mugridge has been driven into the
city, and she is not breeding very much of anything
save an anaemic and sickly progeny which cannot
find enough to eat. The strength of the English-

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v?