The French Assembly has rejected the project of a general
Income-tax, after a speech from M. Thiers described as a splendid one. It was certainly most effective, the Right and Left listening with equally rapt attention, but to Englishmen it is not very clear, M. 'niers' impression seems to be that property and wages should bear in the gross about the same taxation,--an idea in which the majority of Eugliehmen will agree. He asserts that the normal taxation of France just establishes this equilibrium, and he will not disturb it by taxing the rich solely on account of their riches. They pay Abair half already. But he does not define in the least what he means by the wealthier classes, and forgets alto- gether that he is adding 124,000,000 to indirect taxes paid by all. If by the wealthier classes he means people with more than £150 a year he has reason on his side, but if he includes among them all owners of land, then the " rich" are escaping unfairly. A peasant with acres, without an income-tax, may pay through the contribution foncib.e, or land-tax, as we call it, as much as a 2.entier with £1,000 a year. As he estimates this contribution at £12,000,000 a year, and reckons it in the taxation on property, he must include the peasant among the wealthy,—a most unfair pro- ceeding, indirect charges pressing on him quite as heavily as on a man in receipt of weekly wages.
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