306 SIBERIA 



the honesty of tradesmen is guaranteed by the com- 

 petition of their rivals. Ruskin was evidently think- 

 ing of the fair policy which British trade has always 

 adhered to, of fostering the development of business 

 by means of low prices, even on markets where there 

 was no competition to be feared. Competition never 

 kept a nation honest ; it may easily have the opposite 

 effect of encouraging devious methods on the part 

 of those who are less able to hold their own. 



Helped by honesty and fairness, British trade has 

 been pushed in the face of the most deadly odds. 

 British pioneers, sailors, and merchants have braved 

 the dangers of unknown climates and countries, have 

 established relations with savage, barbarous races, 

 often at great personal peril ; trade has been forced 

 upon nations against almost insurmountable diffi- 

 culties, and not seldom at considerable loss to ou,r- 

 selves. We seem to have penetrated everywhere in 

 pursuit of trade. The obstacle of language does not 

 exist any longer. English is spoken throughout the 

 world, and no absurd prejudices against a nation or 

 its methods of internal government have been per- 

 mitted to interfere with legitimate trade. Yet we 

 have made very little headway in Siberia. The 

 country, as I have tried to show, offers ideal condi- 

 tions for trade, and is a paradise to live in compared 

 with some of the countries in which our commercial 

 men are ready enough to settle, yet we have permitted 

 the Danes, Germans, and even the French and 

 Americans, to get ahead of us in nearly every branch 

 of trade with the country. Surely there is room for 

 national self-reproach. 



I believe that the maintenance of our commercial 

 supremacy depends more upon a friendly under- 

 standing with Russia than upon our military alliance 

 with Japan, and will endeavour to give good grounds 

 for that opinion. In the first place, it should bie 



