The Estimates for 1907 have been discussed during the week
in the French Chamber. They reach the figure of £152,973,734, the highest in Western Europe, and if new taxes are not imposed there must be a deficit during the coming year. M. Mougeot, the Reporter of the Budget Committee, explains the size of the Estimates on the ground that the Republic is still meeting the heavy burden of expenditure inherited from past regimes, and he points out that for all their size the French taxpayer is less heavily burdened than any other on the Continent. France, he argues, produces and saves more than formerly, and her fortune is growing, as is shown by the increase in the annual average of the Death. duties during recent years. Bank deposits have trebled since 1880, and more than half the taxpayers possess something in the nature of gilt-edged securities. Production also grows apace, for since 1880 there are 150,265 more merchants in France ; and the general trade has increased by 260,000,000. M. Mougeot concludes his Report by reassuring French capitalists on the subject of the new Income-tax. The Government of the Republic have no desire to drive capital out of the country. Indeed, considering the almost universal prevalence of Income- tax systems, we do not quite see to what shore French capital could migrate.
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