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-l\'URSHALL. ERNEST BE·NN LIMITED LONDON FIRST PUBLISHED 1925 THIRTEENTH EDITION 1948 Published by Ernest Benn Limited, Bouverie House, Fleet Street, London, and Printed by H. &. ].Pillq.ns &. Wilson, 20 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh 8 Foreword W HEN these Confessions first appeared in I 925, the capitalist system was being subjected to ever-increasing criticism and calumny. It has taken three periods of Socialist government to stem the tide, and to cause many people to examine afresh the principles on which our former prosperity was based. The rate of govern ment expenditure and some other figures mentioned in this book have increased enormously since it was written, and the case for private enterprise has, I believe, been strengthened by nearly everything that has happened in the past twenty years. To' bring this edition within the compass of the Bouverie Library, a series initiated by my' eldest son, I have agreed to omit a chapter on America which appeared in earlier issues. Nothing has altered my impression that capitalism has attained its highest level in that enlightened country, and indeed my conclusion in 1925 has a new significance in relation to the cir cumstances of 1948. "The world," I then wrote, " has nothing to fear from American leadership. This challenge to mankind is a very different thing from that which came from Napoleon or from the Kaiser.