40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



see their way in their next report to give more details on this very 

 interesting point.* 



Before passing on I should like to add a caution which may not 

 be necessary in this room, but which may be needed outside. All 

 such figures must be taken with a good deal of qualification, owing 

 to variations of detail in the method of levying the duty at different 

 times, variations in the character of the administration, and the like 

 causes. I notice, for instance, an unusually remarkable increase both 

 in the number of owners and amount of property passing in Scotland ; 

 this last fact, I believe, having already given rise to the statement 

 that there has been something unexampled in the increase of personal 

 property in Scotland. The explanation appears to be, however, that 

 the increase of property in Scotland is, to some extent, only apparent, 

 being due partly, for instance, to the fact that by Scotch law mort- 

 gages are real property, whereas in England they are personal prop- 

 erty, so that it was necessary, in the course of administering the tax, 

 to pass a special law enabling the Commissioners of Inland Revenue 

 to bring Scotch mortgages into the category of personal property.f 

 This is only one illustration of the caution with which such figures 

 must be used. Taking them in the lump, and not pressing compari- 

 sons between the three divisions of the United Kingdom, or any other 

 points of detail which might be dangerous, we appear to be safe in 

 the main conclusion that the number of owners of personal property 

 liable to probate duty has increased in the last fifty years more than 

 the increase of population, and that on the average these owners 

 are only about 15 per cent richer than they were, while the indi- 

 vidual income of the working - classes has increased from 50 to 100 

 per cent. 



The next piece of statistics I have to refer to is the number of 

 separate assessments in that part of Schedule D known as Part I, viz., 

 trades and professions, which excludes public companies and their 

 sources of income, where there is no reason to believe that the number 

 of separate assessments corresponds in any way to the number of in- 

 dividual incomes. Even in Part I there can be no exact correspond- 

 ence, as partnerships make only one return, but in comparing distant 

 periods it seems not unfair to assume that the increase or decrease of 

 assessments would correspond to the increase or decrease of individual 

 incomes. This must be the case, unless we assume that in the interval 

 material differences were likely to arise from the changes in the num- 



* It appears that the increase in the number of probates for less than £1,000 is from 

 18,490 to 41,278, or about 120 per cent, the average value per probate being much the 

 same; while the increase of the number of probates for more than £1,000 is from 6,878 

 to 12,629, or over 80 per cent, and the average value per probate has increased from 

 £Y,150 to £9,200. 



f See "Special Report of Commissioners of Inland Revenue," ISYO, vol. i, p. 99. 

 The law on this and other points was altered by 23 and 24 Vict., cap. Ixxx. 



