APPENDIX II.-CHAPTER IV. p. 68. ON THE CHANGES IN THE RUSSIAN NAVY RESULTING FROM THE RECENT WAR WITH JAPan, SeptembeR, 1905. As was stated in the preface, the statistics of a country or of any given profession or trade, are in a perpetual flux from day to day, and of this an example is afforded in the condition of the Russian navy at this present time (June, 1905). The three Baltic fleets were almost totally destroyed in the battle of Tsushima, May 27-29, and the remnants are supposed to be one cruiser and three torpedo boats; so that for the time being, Russia has been wiped out of the list of nations having an effective fleet for political or aggressive purposes. The details of her losses are briefly as follows: 15 battleships; 5 coast-defence ships; 6 armoured cruisers; 9 protected cruisers; 10 special ships and gunboats; 33 torpedo craft. APPENDIX III.-CHAPTER VI. p. 139. RECENT STATISTICS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE, SHOWING THE PROGRESS OF MERCHANT SHIPPING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE following are the latest statistics with reference to the imports and exports of the United Kingdom, compared with other countries, and they show its predominance in both particulars. The trade of the world for the first three months of 1905 is set out in a Board of Trade return published June 22, 1905 :— The following recent information is contained in the annual report on the "Progress of Merchant Shipping in the United Kingdom and the Principal Maritime Countries," issued by the Board of Trade, September 23, 1905 :— "A wonderful growth has taken place in British merchant shipping on the whole, but although London still stands at the head of all the ports of the world in regard to the total tonnage entered and cleared in the year, other ports are growing more rapidly, and Antwerp promises at no distant date to take London's place as premier port of the world. "In regard to the total tonnage on register in the world, it is still a case of the British Empire first and the rest nowhere.' Here are the latest figures: "The strong position of English shipbuilding is demonstrated by the fact that in 1904 the tonnage of vessels built in the United Kingdom was 884,259; in the United States, 387,286; Germany, 162,058; and France, 75,915. Foreigners employed on British ships numbered 39,832. These figures do not include lascars and Asiatics, who numbered 42,682. The number of Britons was 176,975.” "This report demonstrates the enormous preponderance of British vessels engaged in the carrying trade of the world. The tonnage of ships entering and clearing at British ports in trade with the United States has increased from less than one million tons in 1853 to about twelve million tons in 1904; while the increase in ten years under the same head has been over two million tons. In 1904 the total merchant tonnage of the British Empire was over twelve millions, while that of Germany was slightly over two millions. But a still more striking discrepancy flattering to British pride is found in the fact that in 1904 we added twice as much to our merchant shipping as the United States, and almost quadrupled Germany's output. In face of these gratifying figures it is matter of extreme regret that the number of British seamen engaged in British ships is steadily decreasing; thus in 1894 16.95 of our crews were of foreign nationality, while in 1904 no fewer than 22'50 were of alien birth. As our Empire is of the sea, and must remain so, the falling off in the proportion of British seamen is a matter of grave concern."-Daily Express, September 25, 1905. APPENDIX IV.-CHAPTER VIII. p. 189. THE TESTIMONY OF A DANISH STATESMAN TO THE CHARACTER, POSITION, AND PRIVILEGES OF ENGLAND. From the Standard, September 9, 1905. [M. Peschke Koedt, the writer of the following article, was born at Flensborg in 1845. Adopting a commercial career, he became a manufacturer on a large scale, and is now one of Copenhagen's most successful business men. Turning his attention to politics, he was returned to the Danish Parliament in 1895 as a Radical. M. Peschke Koedt has written several books on political economy, which have had a wide circulation. He is the leader of the new movement in Denmark for establishing closer relations with Great Britain.] These proud words, the "BRITANNIA rules the waves ! refrain of one of England's national songs, contain an explanation of the English fleet's visit to the Baltic. Friends and enemies can have different opinions upon the political significance of this visit, but it is a fact, that England rules the ocean, and that she intends to maintain this sovereign power. Every attempt to exclude, or even ignore, England's maritime power will be met with emphatic protest. . . . If England allowed her military competitors to overreach her, the peace of the world would lose its most important support. Germans are soldiers. Frenchmen are patriots. Englishmen are citizens of the world, with an open eye for the mutual interests of mankind. A powerful, liberal England is the surest defence and protection for intellectual, political, and economical freedom. "The British rule is spread over 400 million subjects, representing one-fourth of the population of the globe. England's merchant ships are equal to about half of the world's collective tonnage. England's foreign trade is the largest any nation has ever reached, and the last year's statistics show a new and considerable advance. The English Colonies have the most liberal home rule. The Bank of England, with its financial surroundings, is the most important centre for _the_world's money transactions. England's daily papers and reviews are patterns for the world's Press. English literature contains the loftiest, most profound thoughts that are to be found in books. The English Parliament is the oldest and most esteemed of the legislative assemblies of our time. Political economy has, in England, reached its broadest treatment and its highest development. The English language is the richest, the easiest learnt, and the widest-spread of all civilized modern languages. And the English flag floats free and honoured over the seas, a symbol of the grandest, the most liberal political development the history of the world has recorded." APPENDIX V.-CHAPTER X. p. 303. ON THE MILLIONS LOST TO ENGLAND OWING TO THE FREE IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN GOODS. "AN official table, quoted by Sir Howard Vincent, M.P., shows that in 1904 British workmen lost over £31,000,000 owing to the importation of foreign manufactured goods. “The figures are taken from the Official Statistical Abstract for last year, and they show that foreign manufactured goods have increased from £9,000,000 in 1851 to £135,000,000 in 1904, although we have double the number of mouths to feed. "In an appended table Sir Howard quotes a list of thirtyseven classes of finished goods, made by foreign labour, imported last year, free of all tax or toll (the official value of which is given as £63,212,000), and shows that the approximate wages thereby lost to British artizans was no less than £31,606,000. "All these goods, says Sir Howard Vincent, could have been better made in the United Kingdom, and many of them in Sheffield and the West Riding. "Had these £63,000,000 worth of goods been made in the United Kingdom, as would have been the case sixty years ago, over £31,000,000 would have been paid last year in wages in Great Britain and Ireland. This would have given a wage of 30s. a week to more than 397,000 persons-mostly heads of families.”—Daily Express, October 23, 1905. The problem of "the unemployed" in England is coming to the front more and more, and, as many of our leading Statesmen, Bishops, and Philanthropists assert, it is a problem that must be reckoned with in the near future. Strange that England, with all her Colonies, commerce, and wealth, should be suffering from distress, misery, and starvation in her very midst. Is this the fire out of the midst of Tyre which consumes her, as the prophet Ezekiel testifies, when speaking of Tyre, the type of England? (Ezek. xxviii. 18). (See pp. 314, 299 supra.) APPENDIX VI.-CHAPTER X. p. 327. "VICISSITUDES OF MEN AND NATIONS." THE following extracts from the late Canon Liddon's sermons on "THE MAGNIFICAT" are apposite to some of the points touched upon in this book. In his chapter (iii.) on the "Vicissitudes of Men and Nations," he dwells on the third strophe of "The Magnificat" (Luke i. 51-53) :— "He hath shewed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down princes from their thrones, And hath exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; "In the strophe which is before us to-day she (Mary) is surveying the wide field of human history; she sees God's arm of power displayed in it conspicuously; she notes the changes which God makes in the dynasties and nations, and His rule of action in the kingdom of grace. 66 'No fact, perhaps, is so widely confessed and so practically forgotten as God's action in the affairs of the world and of men's separate lives. One of the principal uses of the historical books of the Old Testament is to accustom us to look at all history in this way; to see God's Hand and Arm in it; to trace in circumstances which might seem trivial or a matter of course the strong action of His Holy Will. God is not less present in English than in Jewish affairs; nor has He less concern with our separate lives than with those of the forefathers, and heroes, and saints of Israel. "Mary here, it seems, looks backward and forward; she is at once historian and prophetess; she is proclaiming principles of Divine government which will be as true in the remote future as they have been true in the distant past. She looks backward over the ages of history, and she beholds kingdoms which have fallen from great prosperity into utter |