terms twelve out
of thirteen lodgings, are exempt, wholly or in part, from the personal
tax, the principal and "additional centimes." On each franc of this
principal there are 96 of these superadded centimes for the benefit of
the town and department and because the department and the town expend
a good deal, and because receipts are essential for the settlement of
these accounts, this or that sum is noted beforehand in every chapter of
receipts, and the main thing now is to have this paid in, and it must
be paid by somebody; it matters little whether the peasants are few or
numerous; if among thirteen taxable persons there is only one that pays,
so much the worse for him, for he must pay for himself and the other
twelve. Such is the case in Paris, which accounts for the "additional
centimes" here being so numerous,[4220] owing to there being less than
60,000 rentals for the acquittance of the entire tax, and, besides
paying their own debt, they must discharge the indebtedness of 625,000
other rentals, the tax on which is reduced or null.--Frequently, before
the Revolution, some rich convent or philanthropic seignior would pay
the taxes of his poor neighbors out of his own pocket; willingly or not,
60,000 Parisians, more or less well lodged, now hand over the same sum,
bestow the same charity, on 625,000 thousand badly or only tolerably
lodged Parisians; among these 60,000 benefactors whom the exchequer
obliges to be benevolent, 34,800 who pay from 1000 to 3000 francs rent,
bestow, under this heading, a pretty large sum for charitable purposes,
while 14,800, who pay more than 3000 francs rent, pay a very large one.
Other branches of direct taxation, in the country as well as in
the city, present the same spectacle: it is always the rich or
the well-to-do taxpayers who, through their over-tax, more or less
completely relieve the poor or straitened taxpayers; it is always the
owners of large or small properties, those who pay heavy or average
licenses, the occupants of lodgings with more than five openings,[4221]
and whose locative value surpasses 1000 francs, who in local expenditure
pay besides their own dues the dues of others and, through their
additional centimes, almost entirely defray the expenses of the
department and commune.--This is nearly always the case in a local
society, except when it chances to possess an abundant income, arising
from productive real estate, and is able to provide for its wants
without ta