310 Great Britain. 
preparation for the same occupy his mind. He lacks, 
as Mr. Roseberry points out, scientific method, and 
hence is wasteful. Moreover, he is conservative and 
self-satisfied beyond any other nation, hence if all 
the wisdom of the world point new ways, he will still 
cling to his accustomed ones. In the matter of having 
commissions appointed to investigate and report, and 
leaving things to continue in unsatisfactory condition 
he reminds one of Spanish dilatoriness. These would 
appear to us the reasons for the difficulty which the 
would-be reformers experience in bringing about 
economic reforms. 
1. Forest Conditions. 
Cesar’s and Strabo’s descriptions agree that Great 
Britain was a densely wooded country. The forest 
area seems to have been reduced much less through 
long-continued use, than through destruction by fire 
and pasture, and by subsequent formation of moors, 
so that it is now, excepting that of Portugal, the 
smallest of any European nation in proportion to 
total area, and, excepting that of Holland, in pro- 
portion to population. 
Of the 121,380 square miles, which Great Britain 
and Ireland represent, less than 4 percent, or 3 million 
acres, (880,000 in Scotland, 303,000 in Ireland) are 
forested, one-fourteenth of an acre per capita; but 
there are over 12 million acres of heaths, moors and 
other waste lands capable of forest growth and of 
supplying in time the entire home demand, and an- 
other 12 million acres partly or doubtfully so, while 
the agricultural land in crops and pasture comprises 
