Of the arguments, whether taken individually or as a whole, it will be enough here to say that no hostile critic of these has been able in any way to meet them. The only writers who have affected to do so have, either intentionally or unintentionally, entirely failed to understand them; and when they have seemed to be refuting anything, they have been refuting only their own misconceptions or misrepresentations. It is impossible in a short preface to say more than this; but in order to illustrate the truth of the foregoing statement, a paper published by me in the _Fortnightly Review_ is (by kind permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall) reprinted as an Appendix to the present volume. That paper consists of an examination of the criticisms made, on behalf of the Fabian Society, by Mr. Bernard Shaw on two previous papers of my own published (also in the _Fortnightly Review_) under the title of “Fabian Economics,” in which the main arguments of this book were condensed. It is true that many of these arguments are here stated merely in outline, and in a popular rather than in a philosophical form, as is explained more fully in the Preface to the First Edition. But it may be safely asserted that there is hardly a single Socialistic argument used by the Socialistic party in this country to which this present book does not contain a reply, or at all events a clear indication of the grounds on which a reply is to be founded. With regard to the historical facts, and especially the statistics here brought forward, it is necessary to speak more particularly. The broad historical facts—facts connected with the development of wealth in this country—are incapable of contradiction, and have never been contradicted. Hostile critics have directed their principal attacks against the statistics, endeavouring to show that certain of the figures were inaccurate, and arguing that, this being so, the whole contents of the book were unreliable. The most minute attack of this kind which has been brought to my notice dealt with certain figures which were no doubt erroneous, and indeed unmeaning; but had the critic examined the volume with more care, he would have seen that every one of these figures was a misprint, and was corrected in a list of errata which accompanied the first edition. Other critics have confined themselves almost entirely to the figures given by me with regard to two questions—the landed rental of this country, as distinct from the rent of houses; and the growth of the national income during the past hundred years.