13 JANUARY 1877, Page 3

M. Leon Say has presented to the Chamber his Budget

for 1877. He expects a total revenue of £109,000,000, and an ex- penditure fractionally in excess of that sum. This enormous sum represents a taxation of £3 a head, or £15 a house, and is pro- bably the largest revenue ever levied in time of peace in any country, except a British colony in the Southern seas ; yet it does not visibly impair the prosperity of the country, and certainly does not in any way disturb social order. One reason for this is probably that more than a sixth of the whole sum, or seventeen millions sterling, is levied directly on land, part of the rent and almost all conveyancing charges going to the State, instead of, as in England, to the landlords and the lawyers.