38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the affirmative. Where all are getting on, it does not seem very prac- 

 tical in those who are getting on slowly to grudge the quicker advance 

 of others. Usually those who put the question have some vague idea 

 that the capitalist classes, as they are called, secure for themselves all 

 the benefits of the modern advance in wealth ; the rich, it is said, are 

 becoming richer, and the poor are becoming poorer. It will be con- 

 venient, then, to examine the additional question specifically. If the 

 answer agrees with what has already been advanced, then, as nobody 

 doubts that material wealth has increased, all will be forced to admit 

 that the working-classes have had a fair share. 



At first sight it would appear that the enormous figures of the in- 

 crease of capital, which belong, it is assumed, to the capitalist classes, 

 are inconsistent with the notion of the non-capitalist classes having 

 had a fair share. In the paper which I read to the Society four years 

 ago, on " The Recent Accumulations of Capital in the United King- 

 dom," the conclusion at which I arrived was that in the ten years 

 (1865-'75) there had been an increase of 40 per cent in the capital of 

 the nation, and 27 per cent in the amount of capital per head, that is, 

 allowing for the increase of population. Going back to 1843, which 

 is as far as we can go back with the income-tax returns, we also find 

 that since then the gross assessment, allowing for the income from Ire- 

 land not then included in the returns, has increased from £280,000,000 

 to £577,000,000, or more than 100 per cent, in less than fifty years. 

 Assuming capital to have increased in proportion, it is not to be won- 

 dered at that the impression of a group of people called the capitalist 

 classes getting richer and richer while the mass remain poor or become 

 poorer should be entertained. Allowing for the increase of popula- 

 tion, the growth of capital and income-tax income are really much 

 smaller than the growth of the money income of the working-classes, 

 which we have found to be something like 50 to 100 per cent and 

 more per head in fifty years, but the impression to the contrary un- 

 doubtedly exists, and is very natural. 



The error is partly in supposing that the capitalist classes remain 

 the same in number. This is not the case ; and I have two pieces of 

 statistics to refer to which seem to show that the capitalist classes are 

 far from stationary, and that they receive recruits from period to 

 period — in other words, that wealth, in certain directions, is becoming 

 more diffused, although it may not be diffusing itself as we should 

 wish. 



The first evidence I refer to is that of the probate-duty returns. 

 Through the kindness of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, I am 

 able to put before you a statement of the number of probates granted 

 in 1881, and of the amounts of property "proved," with which we 

 may compare similar figures published by Mr. Porter in his " Progress 

 of the Nation " for 1838. I am sorry to say Mr. Porter's figures for 

 1838 are far more detailed than those I am able to give ; a more mi- 



