29 JULY 1871, Page 2

The French Committee on the Budget reports, it is said,

that M. Pouyer-Quertier has under-estimated the new burdens on the Treasury and over-estimated the amount of possible reductions. They think that £24,000,000 a year will be added to the expen- diture, and that all but 12,500,000 of this must be met by new taxation. They are still discussing with M. Thiers the ways and means ; but the idea of an income-tax is again coming forward, and M. Thiers has somewhat relaxed his opposition to it. He says no fiscal question is with him a personal one. Might not the easiest way to raise an income-tax in France be for the State to assume a monopoly of life assurance, and make it compulsory on all men ? Much of the money would then seem to enter into the "inheritance" of which Frenchmen think so much.