exaggerated system of indirect taxes, which has been described as progressive taxation topsy turvy-the less a man has the more he pays. Although wheat is a staple crop yet the peasants eat corn in preference, because, for a given expenditure, it gives a stronger sense of repletion. Of wheat and corn meal together the Italian peasant eats in a year only three fourths as much as the inmate of an English poorhouse. Of meat the peasant in Apulia gets no more than ten pounds a year, while the English workhouse pauper gets fifty seven pounds. The local taxes on flour, bread, and macaroni are as high as 10 per cent or 15 per cent of the value, and the state tax on imported wheat is nearly 50 per cent of its value. The consumption of sugar has decreased one fourth since heavy duties were imposed to protect native beet sugar, and it averages barely over five pounds per head. The consumption in the United States is sixty five pounds per head. The iniquitous salt tax raises the price of salt from eleven pounds for two cents to one pound for two cents, and the peasants sometimes cook their corn meal in sea water, although this is smuggling. What the peasants lack in grain and meat they strive to supply by vegetables, and the proportion of vegetables, peas, and beans consumed is greater than that for any other country of Europe. The peasants drink no beer, spirits, tea, nor coffee, but the average comsumption of wine is twenty gallons a head. Food alone costs the peasants 85 per cent of their wages, whereas it costs the German peasant 62 per cent and the American workman 41 per cent. The poor and working classes pay over one half the taxes, amounting, even without wine, from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of their wages.

The rich escape taxation, which is laid largely on consumption. Besides the state tax on imports, each city and town has its octroi, or import tax on everything brought into the city. These protective duties rob the poor to fill the pockets of the rich landlord and manufacturer. Since 1870 wealth has increased 17 per cent and taxes 30 per cent. Taxes are nearly one fifth of the nation's income, against one twelfth in Germany, one sixteenth in England, and one fifteenth in the United States. Wages rose from 1860 to 1885, but since 1890 they have fallen.