h Japan. In this case there is
also an important error in his arithmetic; but let that pass. The trick
consists in deluding the uncritical reader into the belief that German
trade with Japan is increasing faster than our own, whereas during the
period selected by himself for comparison our increase has been almost
exactly double the German increase. It is by devices such as these that
Mr. Williams has succeeded in filling his pages with gloomy statements
and gloomier prophecies. To track him further along his tortuous path
would be profitless. "Here ends," he writes at the close of one of his
most despairing and most deceptive chapters, "the tale of England's
industrial shame." If candour should be an essential to fair
controversy, there is other shame than England's to be ended.

CHAPTER V.

OUR GROWING PROSPERITY.

Having now shown, both generally and in detail, how absolutely void of
foundation are many of the most gloomy statements in "Made in Germany,"
we can dismiss Mr. Williams and his fanciful forebodings, and examine
instead the direct and abundant evidence of the growing prosperity of
our country. The first point to notice is the immense development of our
shipping industry. In the last quarter of a century the tonnage of
shipping engaged in foreign trade entering our ports has more than
doubled, and this increase has been steady and persistent, with no
retrogression worth noticing in any year. But that is not all. Twenty
years ago the proportion of British ships engaged in this foreign trade
of ours was only 67 per cent. of the total; it is now well over 72 per
cent. In the same period the number of tons of shipping per hundred of
the population, taking entries and clearances together, has risen from
130 tons to 200 tons. No other country can point to such figures.
Germany, starting from small beginnings, has improved rapidly, but her
totals are insignificant compared with our own. Only 43 per cent. of her
foreign trade is carried in her own ships, as against nearly 73 per
cent. in our case, while per hundred of the population the shipping to
and from her ports is less than a quarter of ours. If we turn to France
we find that while the total shipping to and from French ports has
increased as rapidly as with us, the proportion carried under the French
flag has appreciably fallen. In the case of the United States there has
been a still greater fall. Twenty years ago 33 per cent. of the foreign
trade