hazards
score a point, he introduces the argument that "probably the British
farmer ... does not regard this competition of German with English
manure manufacturers as altogether disadvantageous." This is all very
well; but even a hard-pressed critic cannot serve two masters; he cannot
set out to prove that the Germans are not beating us, and then, when he
tumbles against an instance to the contrary which repulses all attempts
to explain it away, turn round and say that it is a very good thing. It
is possible to score points in a way which does not improve the scorer's
position. Altogether, I venture to suggest to the correspondent that his
general case would have been strengthened had he passed over the
chemical trades in discreet silence.

SOAP IMPORTS FROM GERMANY.

Especially was he ill-advised when, for the purpose of bringing into
greater prominence my addiction to false statement, he burst out into
italics in the following sentence: "_So far as the Custom House returns
show, not one single ounce of foreign soap is imported into the United
Kingdom, either from Germany or from any other country._" Because the
German returns show an export of soap to England under three different
headings. The correspondent should have provided himself with Green
Books as well as Blue Books before he set out to demolish me. He would
then have learned--what he should have known anyway, considering the
attention he has given to the subject--that the English Custom House
returns do not show everything.

IMPORTS OF IRON.

This limited acquaintance with German statistics has caused the
correspondent to go wrong on other occasions. For instance, in the
fourth article he produces a table purporting to show our iron trade
with Germany, in which the iron exports from Germany to England cut a
very insignificant figure beside the English exports to Germany. To
quote his own words in another place--"Most impressive! if only it were
true." I had occasion the other day to get out a detailed list of the
German exports to England of iron and steel manufactures in 1891; they
reached a total of 109,956 tons. The correspondent gives 11,000 tons as
the total of iron manufactures; the complete total of iron and steel
manufactures, according to the source whence he obviously drew his
information, was about 16,000 tons. The explanation is of course that
the English returns do not always show the actual place of origin. (It
doesn't matter much; co