POSTSCRIPT. 
281. THE story of the growth of English Industry and The treat 
Commerce has not come to an end; and no narrator can ot the 
pretend to follow it to the close; he is forced to choose some 5:00 
point at which he thinks it convenient to break off the England 
shread. There are many reasons why it seems wise to the 
present writer not to attempt to enter on the recent economic 
history of the country, or to delineate the course of affairs 
since 1850. At that period the abandonment of Mercantilism 
had become complete, and the reaction against Laissez Faire 
had begun to make itself clearly felt, so far as the regulation 
of industry and of internal transport are concerned. 
The treatment of recent history would necessarily be presents 
lifferent from that which has been attempted in dealing sien 
with the affairs of other days. Contemporaries enjoy an 
admirable position for chronicling events and putting on 
record vivid descriptions of passing occurrences, but they are 
aot necessarily better fitted than those who look on from 
a distance, to analyse the conditions which have brought 
about a change. Since economic causes do not lie on the 
surface, there is all the more danger that men may fail to 
appreciate the really important forces that are at work in 
their generation. It does not come easy to everyone to hold 
aimself severely aloof from the interests and sentiments of 
his own day, so that he can hope to form the dispassionate 
judgment which is possible in tracing the course of affairs in 
bygone times. The financial and economic history of England, 
during the last fifty years, has been deeply affected by the 
personal influence of Cobden’s most notable disciple. Men, 
who have felt the magnetic attraction which Mr Gidstone 
>xercised, are hardly fitted to judge how far the extraordinary 
levelopment of particular sides of economic life, which took