very favourable to many kinds of bulbous plants as well as half-hardy shrubs, several of which grew there more freely and flowered better than in any of my other gardens.

In 1884 Messrs. Pears offered a prize of £100 for the best essay on "The Depression of Trade," and Professor Leone Levi had agreed to be one of the judges. As I had been for some time disgusted with the utter nonsense of many of the articles on the subject in the press, while what seemed to me the essential and fundamental causes were never so much as referred to, I determined to compete, though without any expectation of success. The essay was sent in some time during the summer of 1885, and in July I received a letter from Professor Leone Levi, in which he writes: "My colleague and myself were greatly pleased with the essay bearing a motto from Goldsmith. We, however, did not see our way to recommend it for the prize, especially on account of disagreement as to the remedies suggested. But the essay having great merit, we thought it proper to open the envelope in order to correspond with the author."

He then asked me if I would allow the first part of my essay, upon "Conditions and Causes," to be printed with the other essays.

As my proposed remedies were the logical conclusion from the "Conditions and Causes," which I had detailed, and of which the validity seemed to be admitted, I, of course, declined this offer, and Messrs. Macmillan agreed to publish it under the title, "Bad Times: An Essay on the Present Depression. of Trade, tracing it to its Sources in enormous Foreign Loans, excessive War Expenditures, the Increase of Speculation and of Millionaires, and the Depopulation of the Rural Districts; with Suggested Remedies."

This little book was widely noticed, but most of the reviewers adverted to the fact that I was an advocate of landnationalization, and therefore that my proposed remedies were unsound. But a few were more open-minded. The Newcastle Chronicle declared it to be "the weightiest contribution to the subject made in recent times." The Freeman's Journal thus

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concluded its short notice: "Every point is driven home with vigour and directness, and the little book is well calculated to assist in the formation of sound views upon the urgent question of which it treats." The Beacon (Boston, U.S.A.) termed it "a very important little book," and gave it a wholly favourable review; but the notice that pleased me most was that in Knowledge, then edited by Richard Proctor, a man of originality and genius. He declared that my book was remarkable as being the application of scientific method to a complex problem of political economy, which, of course, rendered it impossible for the official representatives of that science to accept its conclusions. The book, however, had very little sale, and after a few years the publishers sent me about a hundred copies, which remained an incumbrance to their shelves, and which I gave away. It is, therefore, at present, one of the rarest of my books. In the same year I wrote my best small contribution to the literature of anti-vaccination, entitled "Forty-five Years of Registration Statistics, proving Vaccination to be both Useless and Dangerous"; but this subject will be referred to in a future chapter.

Towards the close of the year I received an invitation from the Lowell Institute of Boston, U.S.A., to deliver a course of lectures in the autumn and winter of 1886. After some consideration I accepted this, and began their preparation, taking for my subject those portions of the theory of evolution with which I was most familiar. At this time I had made the acquaintance of the Rev. J. G. Wood, the well-known writer of many popular works on national history. He had been twice on lecturing tours to America, and gave me some useful information, besides recommending an agent he had employed, and who had arranged lectures for him at various schools and colleges. I had already lectured in many English towns on the permanence of the great oceans, on oceanic and continental islands, and on various problems of geographical distribution. To these subjects I now added one on "The Darwinian Theory," illustrated by a set of original diagrams of variation. I also wrote three lectures on the "Colours of Animals (and Plants)," dwelling especially on protective

colours, warning colours, and mimicry, and for these I had to obtain a series of lantern slides coloured from nature, so as to exhibit the most striking examples of these curious and beautiful phenomena. All this took a great deal of time, and the maps and diagrams forming a large package, about six feet long in a waterproof canvas case, caused me much trouble, as some of the railways refused to take it by passenger trains, and I had to send it as goods; and in one case it got delayed nearly a week, and I had to give my lectures with hastily made rough copies from recollection.

The lectures I finally arranged for the Lowell course were eight in number, to be given twice a week in November and December. As these lectures formed the groundwork for my book on Darwinism, I will here give their titles

I. The Darwinian Theory: what it is, and how it has been demonstrated.

2. The Origin and Uses of the Colours of Animals.

3. Mimicry, and other exceptional modes of Animal Coloration.

4. The Origin and Uses of the Colours of Plants.

5: The Permanence of Oceans, and the relations of Islands and Continents.

6. Oceanic Islands and their Biological History.

7. Continental Islands: their Past History and Biological Relations.

8. The Physical and Biological Relations of New Zealand and Australia.

Shortly before I left England I gave the lecture on "Darwinism" to the Essex Field Club in order to see how my diagrams of variation struck an intelligent audience, and was fairly satisfied with the result.

I left London on October 9 in a rather slow steamer in order to have a cabin to myself at a moderate price, and landed at New York on the 23rd, after a cold and disagreeable passage. A sketch of my American tour will be given in the following chapters.