ITS SOURCES, ECONOMICS, AND DANGERS. BY 66 J. S. JEAN S, AUTHOR OF STEEL: ITS HISTORY, MANUFACTURE, AND USES," ETC. LONDON: 1885. [All rights reserved.] INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE. IT has been the aim of the Author in the following chapters to examine, in the light of the most recent and reliable facts, some important and pressing economic. problems of our time. In this effort mere theory and argument have been as much as possible rejected, and the various matters dealt with have been brought to the test of actual figures. It has been an unavoidable result of this method of treatment to divest the book of much of that charm that appertains to works of a purely descriptive or controversial character; but it is hoped that the reader who cares to follow the facts recorded may find some compensation in the information which it has been the main purpose of the Author to communicate. There never probably was an epoch when well-authenticated facts bearing upon the condition-of-England question were more in demand than at present. There is abroad a very uneasy and restless spirit, which seems to be tending towards the disruption of not a few sound economic principles, as if they were unsuited to the exigencies of the current time. From many different quarters it is proclaimed that England's sun is setting, or about to |