The Finance Committee of the French Chamber adhere to their
project of establishing an Income-tax. The Minister of Finance has admitted to the Bureau that M. de Freycinet did mean the Income-tax when he alluded to new imposts at Toulouse, but has urged that the Treasury requires at least a year to make its preparations. The Committee, however, insist that if the tax is voted something will be raised, and the principle will then be effectually established. The Ministry mean to resist, and perhaps will win by showing that Rente cannot be exempted. There is the crux for Radicals ; for if they do not tax Rente, they will exempt the very persons whom Jacobins hate most ; while if they do, the tax will be felt in every peasant's cottage. The substitute for the tax, if it is not voted, is to be a substantial increase in the duty on spirits, the one device which all parties reject being rigid economy.
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