spheres of action. Police forces could be decreased, and a prison
here and there closed. This had a tendency to lessen the rates,
so the taxpayer became touched in his tenderest part--his pocket.
His heart and his conscience then immediately softened toward the
Society's work, though years of preaching and the existence of all
abominable evils close to his door had failed to move him. When
this point had been reached, the Society began to be looked upon
as one of the great remedial agents of the age, and work was much
easier. One evil after another was grappled with, and in time
subdued. Scientific researches were set on foot in hygiene,
medicine, and every subject from which the community at large
could derive benefit, till in twenty years time so much general
improvement had been effected that Canada's ways of doing things
came to be quoted in other countries as a precedent. Our cities
were the best built, best drained, cleanest and healthiest, and
our city populations the most orderly and most enlightened. The
Society's roll of members now included a great number of eminent
men, and their operations were extended over the whole Dominion,
and works of all kinds were carried on simultaneously in all parts.
Outside the Society, it had become quite fashionable for all
classes to take the most eager interest in everything concerning
the public welfare, so the Dominion continued to prosper and
advance with wonderful rapidity. Thus it happened that we came to
take the lead among nations and have been able to keep foremost
ever since, though with our 93,000,000 we are not by any means
the largest nation.

The improved hygienic conditions under which we live have had the
effect of very largely increasing the population. Our forefathers
in their wisdom spent large sums of money in attracting immigrants