The Berlin correspondent of the Times, who is unusually well
informed, reports that the condition of the Imperial finances is severely felt by the smaller States of the Confedera- tion. It does not appear, however, that this condition is very serious. There is this year a " matricular contribution" be be made up of £1,200,000; but of this amount £750,000 falls upon Prussia, which, it is admitted, is well able to bear it, and £120,000 upon Bavaria, which also is rich, with a total revenue of more than £22,000,000. Some of the States, lam- ever, are poor, while Bavaria is discontented with Prussian policy; and a Conference of financiers has therefore been ordered to consider measures for readjusting the burden so that it may be less severely felt. That sounds sensible enough ; but the German Radicals and the Roman Catholics of the Centre both see in it a scheme for further increasing taxation upon im- ports, and both declare—the latter in an official manifesto— that this plan shall not be adopted. They want a heavier Income-tax, declaring that the imposts borne by the masses must not be increased. The quarrel will be fiercely fought out, for the upper classes detest direct taxation, while the lower have not imbibed Mr. Chamberlain's luminous idea that an increase of import-duties is sure to increase wages. The advocates of indirect taxation should translate And circulate his speeches.
