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viii should prove of value to all who desire to be acquainted with the views of the greatest experts in national organisation.

The present volume, like my other books, is perhaps rather a storehouse of facts than an expression of my own views. I hope that, nevertheless, it will prove thoroughly readable. It may be of value to statesmen, politicians, publicists, and the general public because of the important documentary and statistical evidence which it contains.

The contents of the book are, for the convenience of readers, briefly summed up in its first chapter, 'The Peace Congress and After.' All the other chapters have previously appeared in The Nineteenth Century and After. They attracted a great deal of attention at the time, and many of them were reprinted in extenso not only on the Continent, in the British Dominions, and in the United States, but even in Japan and China. I have been urged to collect and to republish them in book form, and I am allowed to do so by the courtesy of Mr. Skilbeck, the editor of The Nineteenth Century review, to whom I herewith give my best thanks. The original articles have been revised, brought up to date, and organically connected, and considerable additions have been made to them.

Although it may seem immodest, I would in conclusion say a few words as to my literary activity in the past. Ever since 1900, when I began my career as a publicist, I have warned this country of the danger of a war with Germany. In all my books and in innumerable articles printed in the leading reviews and elsewhere I have urged unceasingly the necessity of diplomatic, military, and economic preparation, the necessity of abandoning the policy of 'splendid isolation' for one of alliances with France, Russia, Japan, and the United States, the necessity of strengthening, developing, and organising the Empire towards the day of trial, the necessity of strengthening the fleet, the necessity of creating a national army, the necessity of strengthening the British industries, and especially the iron and steel industry, by a policy of deliberate