eprinted _verbatim_ in an Appendix. I am indebted to
the proprietors of the _Daily Graphic_ for their courteous permission to
republish the articles, and to the Committee of the Cobden Club for
undertaking the republication. I have only to add that the opinions
expressed throughout are my own, and that the Cobden Club does not
necessarily endorse every one of them.

H. C.

GRAY'S INN,
_December, 1896._

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I.--OUR EXPANDING TRADE 1

II.--GERMANY: ONE OF OUR BEST CUSTOMERS 8

III.--PICTURESQUE EXAGGERATIONS 14

IV.--MORE MISREPRESENTATIONS 21

V.--OUR GROWING PROSPERITY 33

VI.--LET WELL ALONE 43

VII.--CONCLUSION 54

APPENDIX 57

ARE WE RUINED BY THE GERMANS?

CHAPTER I.

OUR EXPANDING TRADE.

In a little book recently published, an attempt is made to show that
British trade is being knocked to pieces by German competition, that
already the sun has set on England's commercial supremacy, and that if
we are not careful the few crumbs of trade still left to us will be
snapped up by Germany. This depressing publication, aptly entitled "Made
in Germany," has received the quasi-religious benediction of an
enterprising and esoteric journalist, and the puff direct from a
sportive ex-Prime Minister. Thus sent off it is sure to be widely
circulated, and, being beyond dispute well written, to be also widely
read. Unfortunately--such is the nature of the book--it cannot be so
widely criticised. It consists largely of quoted statistics and
deductions therefrom, and few readers will have the means at hand for
verifying the many figures quoted, while fewer still will have the
patience to compare them with other figures which the author omits to
mention. As a necessary consequence, a large number of persons will
believe that Mr. Williams has proved his case, and some of them will
jump to the conclusion, which is evidently the conclusion to which Mr.
Williams himself leans, that the only way to prevent the commercial
downfall of our country is to reverse the Free Trade policy which we
deliberately adopted fifty years ago.

THE ART OF EXAGGERATION.