The French Ministry produced their Budget on the same day
as the English one, and, curiously enough, the deficit they -have to meet, 23,320,000, is nearly the same al that with which Sir William Harcourt had to deal. They deal with it, too, in principle in exactly the same way. A great part of the deficit is met by forestalling the profit which the Government will make when the railways fall, into its hands, about 2300,000 by a surtax on spirits and superior tobacco, and a million and a quarter by an indirect Income-tax. No French Cabinet will propose an Income-tax, as all parties, except the Radicals and Socialists, are openly or secretly opposed to it; but M. Bardean has remodelled the old House- -duty so that the amount paid by each family may be partially regulated by income, and has proposed a• duty on servants rising with their number, for the same end. The great evil which the French fear, the revelation of their incomes in face of an envious people, is thus avoided ; but the device, though shrewd, will not draw enough money.
Previous page
