the affirmative. Where all are getting on, it does not seem very practical in those who are getting on slowly to grudge the quicker advance of others. Usually those who put the question have some vague idea that the capitalist classes, as they are called, secure for themselves all the benefits of the modern advance in wealth; the rich, it is said, are becoming richer, and the poor are becoming poorer. It will be convenient, then, to examine the additional question specifically. If the answer agrees with what has already been advanced, then, as nobody doubts that material wealth has increased, all will be forced to admit that the working-classes have had a fair share.
At first sight it would appear that the enormous figures of the increase of capital, which belong, it is assumed, to the capitalist classes, are inconsistent with the notion of the non-capitalist classes having had a fair share. In the paper which I read to the Society four years ago, on "The Recent Accumulations of Capital in the United Kingdom," the conclusion at which I arrived was that in the ten years (1865-'75) there had been an increase of 40 per cent in the capital of the nation, and 27 per cent in the amount of capital per head, that is, allowing for the increase of population. Going back to 1843, which is as far as we can go back with the income-tax returns, we also find that since then the gross assessment, allowing for the income from Ireland not then included in the returns, has increased from £280,000,000 to £577,000,000, or more than 100 per cent, in less than fifty years. Assuming capital to have increased in proportion, it is not to be wondered at that the impression of a group of people called the capitalist classes getting richer and richer while the mass remain poor or become poorer should be entertained. Allowing for the increase of population, the growth of capital and income-tax income are really much smaller than the growth of the money income of the working-classes, which we have found to be something like 50 to 100 per cent and more per head in fifty years, but the impression to the contrary undoubtedly exists, and is very natural.
The error is partly in supposing that the capitalist classes remain the same in number. This is not the case; and I have two pieces of statistics to refer to which seem to show that the capitalist classes are far from stationary, and that they receive recruits from period to period—in other words, that wealth, in certain directions, is becoming more diffused, although it may not be diffusing itself as we should wish.
The first evidence I refer to is that of the probate-duty returns. Through the kindness of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, I am able to put before you a statement of the number of probates granted in 1881, and of the amounts of property "proved," with which we may compare similar figures published by Mr. Porter in his "Progress of the Nation" for 1838. I am sorry to say Mr. Porter's figures for 1838 are far more detailed than those I am able to give; a more mi-
