penditures have been exceptional because the Boer War proved the
country unprepared for any great military undertaking, and necessitated
elaborate efforts. However, the figures are startling, and give point to
Lord Avebury's conclusion:

We sometimes hear of "Little Englanders." I hope we shall
not let ourselves be stung into extravagance and war by any
such taunt. There are many who have strong views as to what
constitutes the true greatness of a country. It is not
wealth, but the application of it; not the numbers of the
people, but their character and wellbeing; not the strength,
but the use made of it. We do not wish for England the
dangerous power of dictation or the seductive glamour of
conquest, but that our people may be happy and contented;
that we may do what we can to promote the peace, progress,
and prosperity of mankind, and that we may deserve, even if
we do not secure, the respect, the confidence, and the
good-will of other nations.

Being once more happily at peace with all the world, our
financial policy should be to reduce expenditure, pay off
debt, increase our reserves, and lighten the taxes which now
press so heavily on the springs of industry.

THE CHEERY OPTIMISM OF LITTLE JAPAN.

A Nippon Statesman Tells How the
Britain of the East Looks Hopefully
to New Horizons.

The Japanese are winning fresh admiration for the cheerful optimism with
which they face the perplexing financial conditions following the war. In
the _Forum_ for January, Baron Shibuzawa expresses a sentiment general
among Japanese statesmen:

It would be out of tune with all things, for us, at this
hour, to be looking upon financial Japan after the war with
a sad eye. Nevertheless, as we are well aware of the
disturbances which the war has brought to our finances, we
must look to the best possible measures for restoring to
health and prosperity what the war has disturbed. That is
all. But the war and its conclusion have brought us one very
great and precious gift, namely, it has admitted us into the
household of the great economic world. In a word, it has
given a wider horizon to the economic circle of Nippon, and
has brought us into the very heart of the comity and
exchange of the economic interests of all human kind; and
has linked us, in a sense hitherto unknown to us, with the
markets of t