THE PROGRESS OF THE WORKING-CLASSES, 39 



nute comparison would be most instructive ; but I was unfortunately 

 too late in applying to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue for the 

 details which I found they were most willing to give. However, the 

 statement they supplied to me and the comparison which can thus be 

 made seem most instructive. They are as follow: 



Statement of Number of Probates granted in 1882, icith Amounts of 

 Property proved, arid Average per Probate [^from figures supplied 

 by the Commissioners of Inland Rev enue\ ; and Comparison with 

 a Similar Statement for 1838, 



[From Porter's "Progress of the Nation," p. 600, et seqj] 



Thus, in spite of the enormous increase of property passing at 

 death, amounting to over 150 per cent, which is more than the in- 

 crease in the income-tax income, the amount of property per estate 

 has not sensibly increased. The increase of the number of estates is 

 more than double, and greater therefore than the increase of popula- 

 tion ; but the increase of capital per head of the capitalist classes is in 

 England only 19 per cent, and in the United Kingdom only 15 per 

 cent. Curiously enough, I may state, it is hardly correct to speak of 

 the capitalist classes as holding this property, as the figures include a 

 small percentage of insolvent estates ; but allowing all the property 

 to belong to the capitalist classes, still we have the fact that those 

 classes are themselves increasing. They may be only a minority of 

 the nation, though I think a considerable minority, as 55,000 estates 

 passing in a year represent from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 persons as 

 possessing property subject to probate duty ; and these figures, it 

 must be remembered, do not include real property at all. Still, small 

 or large as the minority may be, the fact we have before us is that in 

 the last fifty years it has been an increasing minority, and a minority 

 increasing at a greater rate than the increase of general population. 

 Wealth to a certain extent is more diffused than it was. 



If I had been able to obtain more details, it would have been pos- 

 sible to specify the different sizes of estates and the different percent- 

 ages of increase, from which it would not only have appeared whether 

 the owners of personal property were increasing in number, but whether 

 the very rich were adding to their wealth more than the moderately 

 rich, or vice versa. But it is something to know at least that there 

 are more owners. I trust the Commissioners of Inland Revenue will 



