probability be
followed by better. Here are all the figures for the last fifteen years
for which statistics are available, with the German figures set beside
them:--

PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON.

In Millions of Tons.

--------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---
|1880|'81|'82|'83|'84|'85|'86|'87|'88|'89|'90|'91|'92|'93|'94
--------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---
In the United | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Kingdom | 7.7|8.1|8.6|8.5|7.8|7.4|7.0|7.6|8.0|8.3|7.9|7.4|6.7|7.0|7.4
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
In Germany | 2.7|2.9|3.4|3.5|3.6|3.7|3.5|4.0|4.3|4.5|4.7|4.6|4.9|5.0|5.4
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
--------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

These figures show that Germany has without doubt been rapidly gaining
upon us, but it is the grossest exaggeration to say that our trade "has
gone." As a matter of fact the output of pig iron in the United Kingdom
rose to 7.9 million tons in 1895, and--according to the _Economist_ of
November 11th--the estimated output for the present year (1896) is 8.7
million tons. If that figure is realised it will be the largest on
record. So much for Mr. Williams's "Ichabods," and all his talk of
departed glory!

COMPARISONS SAID TO BE "ODIOUS."

Turning to another paragraph headed "Odious Comparisons," we find--

"Under the general heading of iron, wrought and unwrought, the
returns of our German exports exhibit a fall from 374,234 tons
in 1890 to 295,510 tons in 1895.... Of unenumerated iron
manufactures Germany supplied us with 219,841 cwt. in 1890 and
with 311,904 cwt. in 1895."

Had Mr. Williams taken the trouble to convert the German figures from
cwts. into tons he might have found this comparison somewhat less
"odious." If we send Germany 295 thousand tons against 15 thousand tons
she sends us, our iron manufacturers have not much to grumble at. But,
as a matter of fact, no reliance can be placed upon these particular
figures, because, as was pointed out in a previous chapter, much of the
stuff that we get from Germany is credited in our Blue Books to Holland
and Belgium, and these countries in the same way are debited with a
large amount of British stuff that ultimately finds its way to Germany.
Exactly the same causes