The nickname of " The Upper Ten Thousand" seems to
involve a numerical mistake. It appears from some tables just presented to the Statistical Society by Mr. Dudley Baxter, tables based upon income-tax returns, that 7,084 persons possess 112,640,0001. a year, being one-seventh of the whole national income as returned, per- haps one-fifth of the whole real income,—much income being re- turned twice, as that of the State employds,—aad one-fourth of all the income derived from property. The entire income of the 1,860,000 families which pay less than 3001. a year is not equal to that of these Upper Seven Thousand. There are, moreover, only 47,564 households in England returning more than 1,0001. a year. It will be remembered also that only 32,000 persons possess in Great Britain more than ten acres apiece. The deduc- tion from all these facts is, that there are but 7,000 families in England deserving to be called rich, that is, with more than 5,0001. a year, and less than 50,000 who are comfortable, that is, have more than 1,000/. from all sources.
Previous page
