PUBLIC ATTENTION HAS been keenly directed o£ late, to the methods of conducting British trade abroad. When it began to be discovered that the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by our merchants was threatened by competition in unexpected quarters, the first impulse of Englishmen was to rail at their officials. That is generally their first impulse in all circumstances of difficulty. Theoretically any one who advocates the placing of tradal (sic) affairs, however indirectly, under an official aegis is denounced as a mischievous heretic. But practically, the Government is everything to the average Englishman. He keeps on hand a perpetual stock of indignation ready to be freely ventilated whenever abuses that seem within reach of official remedy present themselves to his vision. Accordingly, when commerce showed symptoms of inconstancy – when it dawned on him that a domain over which he had been wont to range in all the pride of undisputed possession, was actually invaded by intrusive outsiders, he raised his voice at once and charged the Government with allowing alien hands to disturb the ancient landmarks. British Ministers and Consuls, he cried, were neglecting their duty. They were ignoring, or had forgotten, that their most important function was to foster British trade, and to push the interests of their country's merchants. Let them be up and doing, or their more active and less fastidious colleagues would contrive that the current of trade should flow into other than British channels. Thus invoked, British Ministers and Consuls made answer on their own account: