dismemberment of the empire, is the question uppermost in old England.

With us, the problem is not one of scattered colonies but of divergent
people. There is in the United States the double problem of how to
consolidate and preserve the interests of a nation with a long area
north and south, and with the most diverse elements of population ever
gathered under one flag. This is complicated by other factors. Our
study is confined to those which touch what is known as the Southern
question. The problems of English and American political and religious
life are identical in that both are inspired by the watchword of the
rising multitudes, "The world for the many."

The Southern problem is but part of the larger one of area and races.
Consider a few facts. The South is peopled chiefly by two classes,
native whites and native blacks. Both whites and blacks are there to
remain. More whites leave the South than blacks, and the population is
increasing. Emigration avoids the States chiefly inhabited by blacks.
It is not probable that the exodus of whites will be very great. The
population of the future will probably be of the same classes,
although the proportion is rapidly changing. Native whites and native
blacks, unless signs fail, will possess the land.

The Negro race is appallingly fertile. It shows no sign of decadence.
It is multiplying faster than any other. The number of blacks in the
United States has risen from four millions to nearly eight millions
since the war. That has been entirely by natural reproduction. The
increase of whites during the decade from 1870 to 1880 was twenty-nine
per cent.; of blacks thirty-five per cent. If, now, we allow nine per
cent. for the increase of the whites by immigration, we find that the
increase of blacks over the whites by natural order is about fourteen