utting even the British
shipbuilding trade on his "black list." This is his argument:--

"In 1883 the total tonnage built in the United Kingdom was
892,216; in 1893 it reached only 584,674; in 1894, 'tis true, it
rose to 669,492, but this is much below the total even of 1892,
which was 801,548."

Again one can only admire Mr. Williams's ingenuity. Reading his
paragraph, who would dream that between the years so skilfully selected
for comparison the trade had experienced an enormous drop, and
afterwards, to all intents and purposes, completely recovered itself;
that then a smaller drop had occurred, and that this in turn was being
fast made good? The best way to expose the above piece of statistical
legerdemain is to give without further comment the whole of the figures
for the past fifteen years. They will be found in the following table.
With figures such as these before him--and they must have been before
him--it is astounding that Mr. Williams should have ventured to put
shipbuilding on his black list.

FIFTEEN YEARS OF BRITISH SHIPBUILDING.

Total Output of British and Irish Yards.

In Thousands of Tons.

----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
1881|1882|1883|1884|1885|1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
609| 783| 892| 588| 441| 331| 377| 574| 855| 813| 809| 801| 585| 669| 648
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----

These figures may be illustrated as follows:--

[Illustration]

SHIPS BUILT FOR FOREIGNERS.

But his perverse ingenuity does not end with the paragraph quoted. A few
lines lower down he says:--

"All these figures include vessels built for foreigners as well
as those for home and the Colonies. The year in which we built
most vessels for other nations was 1889, when we supplied them
with 183,224 tons. The four following years showed a progressive
decrease, getting down as low as 89,386 tons in 1893; and though
1894 showed an increase to 94,876 tons, their upward movement
was slight compared with the successive decreases of the
previous years."

The man who wrote these sentences obviously intended to convey to his
readers the impression that our trade in the building of ships for
foreign purchasers was a declining trade. That impression is false, and
it is a little hard to understand