And I do not allude here to the taxes paid directly to the State, and admitted in the budget.  Besides these, there are the provincial and municipal charges, which, under the title of additional per-centage, amount to more than double the direct taxes.  The province of Bologna pays L80,900 of property-tax, and L96,812 of provincial and municipal charges, making together L177,712.  This sum distributed over the whole population of 370,107, brings the taxation to a fraction under 10s. a head.  But observe, that instead of being borne by the whole population, it is borne by no more than 23,022 proprietors.

But mark a further injustice!  It does not bear equally upon the proprietors of the towns and those of the country.  The former has a great advantage over the latter.  A town property in the province of Bologna pays 2s. 3d. per cent., a country property of the same value 5s. 3d. per cent., not upon the income, but the capital.

In the towns, it is not the palaces, but the houses of the middle class that are the most heavily rated.  Take the palace of a nobleman in Bologna, and a small house belonging to a citizen, which adjoins it.  The palace is valued at the trifling sum of L1,100, on the ground that the apartments inhabited by the owner are not included in the income.  The actual rent of which the owner is in the receipt for the part left off is about L280 a year:  his taxes are L18 a year.  The small house adjoining is valued at L200.  The rent derived from it is L10 a year, and the taxes paid on it are L3. 7s. 6d.  Thus we find the palace paying something like 5s. 6d. per cent. on its income, and the small house L1 7s.

The Lombards justly excite our compassion.  But the proprietors of the province of Bologna are taxed to the annual amount of L1,400 more than those of the province of Milan.

To this crushing taxation are added heavy duties on articles of consumption.  All the necessaries of life are liable to these taxes, such as flour, vegetables, rice, bread, etc.  They are heavier than in almost any other European city.  Meat is charged at the same rate as in Paris.  Hay, straw, and wood, at still higher rates.

The town dues of Lille amount to 10s. per head on the population; those of Florence, about the same; and those of Lyons 12s. 6d.  At Bologna they are 14s. 2d.  Observe, town dues alone.  We are already a long way from the 7s. 6d. of the Golden Age!

I am bound in justice to admit that the nation has not always been so hardly dealt with.  It was not till the reign of Pius IX. that the taxation became insupportable.  The budget of Bologna was more than doubled between 1846 and 1858.

Something might be said, if at least the money taken from the nation were spent for the good of the nation!

But one-third of the amount raised in taxation remains in the hands of the officials who collect it.  This is incredible, but true.  The cost of collecting the revenue amounts, if I mistake not, in England, to 8 per cent.; in France, to 14 per cent.; in Piedmont, to 16 per cent.; and in the States of the Church, to 31 per cent.