Page 428 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

420 ECONOMIC INQUIRlES AND STUDlf.S
the future, and diminishing still farth or the effort needed
to obtain what we require abroad.
The final point for our inquiry according to the pro-
gramme above laid down is thy suitability of the United
Kingdom as a place of reside,nce and industry, assum-
ing that what is required from abroad can be obtained
easily. As already stated, a fc\:vourable answer on this
head may be taken for granted in the case of an old
country like the United Kingdom; but a more formal
treatment is proposed, as the wonderful combination of
circumstances in our favour is inadequately realised.
Climate is a condition on which much might be
written, but the historical opinion that England is a
country where you can be out of doors more days than
in any other sums up generally the climatic conditions
in our favour. Temperateness is the characteristic
which our climate possesses in greater degree than that
of any of our western European neighbours that come
nearest to us in the matter. That other communities,
like the United States and Canada, find a drawback in
climatic conditions to many industrial advantages they
possess appears undoubted. They are countries of ex-
tremes, where it costs more for food, shelter and clothing
to permit of the same work to be done than it costs in
the United Kingdom; and this difference of cost is a
considerable advantage to us. Our place of residence
has been improved, moreover, by generations of
workers, who have executed drainage and sanitary im-
provements, built roads, streets, walls and fences;
created parks, gardens and lawns; and generally in-
creased the amenities of life for a huge town population,
such as a population must be that brings its food and
raw materials mainly from a distance.
The next advantage we possess in addition to clim:te
and the artificial amenity of the lanchfor residence i~
compactness of situation. All the different parts of the
country are close; together, well connected by railways,
road and sea, while the sea, of course, affords perfect