PREFACE.THE present work was written last ~rarch, incompetition for the Pears prize of one hundredguineas for the best essay on' the present depressionof trade. It did not obtain the prize, and it istherefore now submitted to the judgment of thepublic-and more especially of the working classes,with some additional matter in the earlier chapterswhich could not be compressed within the limitsassigned to the competing essays.As our existing land-system in its relation todepression of trade is somew hat fully treated inthe following pages, this seems the proper place tostate that twelve years of the writer's early life werespent in active employment as a land-surveyor andvaluer, during which time he lived chiefly among fanners and country people in various parts ofEngland and Wales. The interest in agricultureand rural life then acquired has been supplementedby observation and study during recent years; andin now cOIning forward as a writer on the laTable of Contents CONTENTS; PART 1; CONDITIONS AND CAUSES OF TRADE DEPRESSION; CHAPTER r; STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM; Commencement and long continuance of the depression-The; problem of increasing wealth accompanied by depression; and poverty-Our social economy a failure-Trade depression; and pauperism probably due to common causes; Pages 1-3; CHAPTER II; POPULAR EXPLANATIONS OF THE DEPRESSION; Eight distinct explanations or suggestions recently put forthBad; harvests not a primary cause-Reasons why the protective; tariffs of foreign countries are not a chief causePreliminary; objection to the currency as a cause of depression-'; The depreciation,of silver, and appreciation of gold,; not adequate causes - General argument against the; cunency thcory-Ov