cal education, for metric weights and measures, for the more
careful study of foreign languages, and generally for a greater
readiness to receive new ideas, and a greater promptitude to meet new
wants.

THE CRY OF "WOLF!"

One word more--Mr. Williams's book has been defended, by himself and by
others, on the ground that it is a useful warning, that the nation
requires to be stirred up, and so on. Has Mr. Williams forgotten the
story of the little boy who cried "Wolf! Wolf!" when there was no wolf?
It is one thing to warn the country of a problematic danger in the dim
future; it is another to scream in the market-place that the danger is
at our doors. Mr. Williams's book is one long scream--a literary scream,
I admit, and therefore in some measure harmonious, but still a scream in
the sense that there is no reason behind the noise that is made. The
danger is not at our doors, our industrial glory is not departing from
us, our trade is not being ruined by Germany. On the contrary, in spite
of the remarkable progress of Germany in a few limited directions, the
general figures show that we are fully maintaining our splendid lead, if
indeed we are not actually bettering it. I cannot, therefore, admit this
attempted justification of the character of Mr. Williams's book. To
quote _Mr. Punch's_ admirable picture, Mr. Williams, like his pupil Lord
Rosebery, has been trying to make our flesh creep. There is more harm
than humour in such a pastime. That the motives of both these disturbers
of our nerves were patriotic I do not for a moment doubt; but their
conduct is neither patriotic nor wise. It does us no manner of good to
be for ever cheapening ourselves in the eyes of the world. A great
nation should have dignity enough to be silent about her own greatness,
neither on the one hand perpetually boasting of her pre-eminent virtue,
nor on the other fretfully asking how her credit stands with other
countries. We are what we are--what our forefathers and our own brains
and arms have made us. Let us be content to possess our souls in peace,
and to get on with our work.

APPENDIX.

MR. WILLIAMS'S REPLY.[3]

[Footnote 3: This reply has been reprinted _verbatim_ from the
_Daily Graphic_. On the other hand, in preparing my own articles
for republication I have made certain modifications with a view
of meeting Mr. Williams's objections, where I thought they were
worth that trouble. Many of the objectio