The wealth of the country increases in spite of all
the calls upon the Treasury. The revenue receipts for the quarter ending June, 1902, show an increase on those of the same quarter in 1901 of no less than £5,367,000. This is not all clear gain, for the Customs-duties and Income-tax have been increased; but there has been an increase off:110,000 in the receipts from the Post Office, which is a barometer of our business activity, and of £606,000 in those from the Death-duties, which have not been altered. This may be due in part to some lucky windfall in the shape of a great estate; but it must also be due in part to the increased value of the properties which fall under the impost. Nobody, in fact, can read the usual lists of wills and legacies without noticing the increased number of obscure persons who die leaving accumulations which even. thirty years ago would have been considered immense. Not only are there many more millionaires, but there is a whole new class of demi-millionaires and testators with from P200,000 to 2400,000. Sir William Harcourt himself must be amazed at the success of his great experiment, which has given the Treasury a second sheet anchor, and shows him to have been at all events a most fortunate Chancellor of the Exchequer.
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