ANNUAL ADDRESS. XXVII. 



after a most careful study of the situation, reported that 

 England had everything to fear and many things to learn 

 from her new rival. " The situation," says a friendly critic, 

 "becomes annually more acute and to-day England is 

 realising the risk that she runs of losing possibly for ever 

 her position as the leading manufacturing and commercial 

 nation of Europe." 



The explanation of this remarkable transition is deserving 

 of the most careful study, and it is of peculiar interest to 

 the members of this Society. As an American writer 1 has 

 recently put it, "That an interior country like Germany, 

 without a navy, and with little foreign commerce, could 

 in a quarter of a century by increasing her manufacturing 

 capacity tenfold make it equal to that of England ; 

 increase her shipping twenty-fold, making it second to that 

 of England ; effectually establish a regular export trade 

 with every country on the globe, and by at once cheapen- 

 ing products and improving their quality, put herself in a 

 position to hold these markets indefinitely; that all this 

 could be accomplished in the face of open competition, and 

 in this age of universal publicity, is indeed marvellous, and 

 would alone prove that old methods have lost their potency 

 and that something new has arisen under the sun." 



japan's achievement. 

 But if the case of Germany is remarkable, what can be 

 said of Japan which almost within the space of a single 

 generation has progressed from medievalism to modern 

 civilization. However puzzled we may be by the spectacle, 

 and however dubious as to the value of the civilization, it 

 would be the worst folly to miss the obvious lesson of so 

 extraordinary a national performance. It is in a very 

 striking degree an illustration of deliberate adaptation of 

 means to an end ; of national organisation on a large scale, 



1 Prof. Johnston, Yol. vi., Proc. Soc. Prom. Eng\ Education. 



