15 



flie man who desires to invest ten dollars in the national 

 fund the preference over him who desires to invest ten 

 million, the small subscription being first received, and 

 fii-st filled. 



It may be interesting, although not exactly in conso- 

 nance wdth the purpose we have in this analysis, to com- 

 p«ire the division of the del)t of France among the peo- 

 ple, showing the diffusion of wealth in the middling 

 classes, with the national debt of Great Britain. Iler 

 •debt amounts to 3800 million which is held by 126 thou- 

 .sand persons only, giving an average share of 30 thou- 

 sand dollars to each individual as against less than one- 

 tenth as much to each holder of the French debt. 



Nor are the French people Inirdened with taxation 

 more than Ave are. They have nothing of the taxation 

 "known with us as State taxes, but their entire taxation 

 is a national one, and amounted witli the revenues, wdiich 

 are another form of taxation in the aggregate, in the 

 year 1868, to 403 million of dollars, while our taxation 

 iind revenues for the same year, paid to the national gov- 

 ernment alone, was 405 millions. But it will be observed 

 that this taxation, while nominally about the same as 

 ours, yet, being with us based on a much less product of 

 trade and industry than in France — almost 50 per cent, 

 less in fact — is really a taxation nearly 50 per cent, 

 greater on the industry of this country than is imposed 

 upon the industries of the French people. 



But another and more certain test of the distribution 

 of wealth in France is seen in this : the population being 

 divided into 9 'millions of families, allowing four to the 

 iamily, which is nearly the ratio, one million of those 

 families, or four million of people, are in easy circum- 



