24 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



development, the universal use of mechanical contrivances, the 

 accumulation of vast wealth, the raising of the standard of com- 

 fort of the working-classes, the higher wages and sliorter hours 

 enjoyed by them, the spread of literature, the beneficent results of 

 the civilising influence on the people of all these improved con- 

 ditions, and the steady progression of national prosperity which 

 other countries have enjoyed equally with our own, all testify 

 to the plain fact that there arc other nations besides Great 

 Britain on the habitable globe, and that tliey too have shared in 

 this wonderful "trade expansion" which in this country Free- 

 traders make too much of. Then many people hold that British 

 enterprise, British prosperity, the colossal proportion of British 

 trade are always well to the front on every occasion when Free- 

 traders trot out tlieu' hobby-horse, but tliat the results of 

 foreign trade, of foreign enterprise, and the serious effects of 

 foreign competition are kept too much in the background. In 

 this it is easy to discern that Free-traders impair the usefulness 

 of their conclusions, and so invalidate their own case. 



National statistics of the kind indulged in are of little use 

 unless they are comjMrative, and the moment British trade 

 statistics are brought into juxtaposition with foreign trade 

 returns of a similar nature, it becomes at once clear that in 

 many respects British trade is not holdifig its own with certain 

 of our foreign competitors. These are ominous words, but it is 

 held that they are, unfortunately, only too true. Succeeding 

 chapters will reveal the true state of affairs. 



An Ugly Feature in Free-trade 



Another remarkably ugly feature which Free-trade oppo- 

 nents declare is kept well in the background by Free-trade 

 enthusiasts, but which has grown out of, and synchronises with, 

 the Free-trade movement, is the phenomenal pauperism of the 

 British people, which finds no parallel in any civilised country 

 on this planet. Pauperism that is rampant and aggressive and 

 widespread among the people, and that has become legalised 

 into a vast State institution demanding for its direct and in- 

 direct maintenance and support as much, or more, than the 

 country spends upon its costly yet inefficient army, or even 

 upon its magnificent navy, is budgeted for by the Government 

 of the day with the same aplomb with whicli they ask for 

 money for the necessary public services. So accustomed have 

 the public become to this familiar item in the annual national 

 estimates that not a man in ten thousand stops to nsk himself 

 if this huge tax, which amounts to the stujDcndous sum of 

 £35,000,000 yearly, is really necessary. This question, however, 



