xvi INTllODUCTION 



our population. Certain portions of that book which bear 

 particularly on these questions have, therefore, been incor- 

 porated in tills work. 



Greatly encouraged by the very hearty reception accorded 

 to that really unpretentious work, and the appeal made therein 

 to the people to join in the crusade against the hydra-headed 

 evils and injustices described in its pages, the author submitted 

 for the further consideration of tlie public a later work entitled 

 " Socialism and its Perils." The generous and sympathetically 

 appreciative manner in which this book was received in every 

 part of the United Kingdom, as well as in distant parts of the 

 British Empire, especially in India, has induced the writer to 

 produce another and a muoh more comprehensive work in order 

 to assist his readers to fully grasp the existing critical condition 

 of national affairs, and to free themselves from the paralysing 

 restrictions to which they have been subject so many years. 



It must be manifest to everybody, that if we are to main- 

 tain our old-time pre-eminence as a race, and our fame and 

 prestige as sons of an Empire on which " The sun never sets," 

 we cannot do so by shutting our eyes to hard convincing facts, 

 and by hiding our heads, ostrich-like, in the sands of the past, 

 especially when our supremacy is being so rudely and so 

 vigorously challenged. 



It is only by " taking stock " of our actual position and our 

 power of productiveness as a nation, and by analysing our 

 present ability to hold our own with foreign competitors, that 

 we can hope to discover the weak joints in our national armour, 

 and to strengthen them in view of future emergencies. 



When we reflect on the marvellous results achieved by 

 Japanese reformers, patriots, and statesmen during the last few 

 decades, in freeing their nation from tlie thraldom of ignorance, 

 prejudice, and insularity, and in placing it in the front rank 

 in military, naval, commercial, and other branches of national 

 development and achievement, we must realise the utter 

 absurdity of being discouraged or daunted by faint-hearted 

 pessimists, who assert the impossibility of rescuing our own 

 country from the deplorable effects of a too-rigid adherence to 

 obsolete systems and methods which are throttling and crippling 

 British agricultural and industrial enterprise and advancement, 

 and promoting the progress and enterprise of foreign rivals. 



Fortunately, it is not necessary for us, as it was for the 

 Japanese regenerators of their race, to start practically de novo 

 on a crusade of administrative reconstruction and national 

 reforms. 



All that is required of us is to enter upon the task of 

 investigation and recommendation in the spirit of true reformers. 



