THE COST OF THE WAR.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 833, 4 July 1871, Page 3

THE COST OF THE WAR.

The " Times " does not regard payment of £200,000,000 as impossible, taking into consideration the actual wealth of Prance. Deducting mountains and wastes, there are in Prance more than 100,000,000 acres of land, the greater part of it good and the whole of a higher average value than the soils of these isles after a light deduction. The fine extracted by the Germans would be met by a mortgage to the amount of £2 sterling on every acre. But, in fact, it is only a small proportion that will fall on the land. The burden will be shared by other kinds of real property, estimated at more than half the aggregate value of land. Thus, in its total incidence upon all property and income, the sum, immense as it may seem, . dwindles very much. Indeed, were the obligation distributed equally upon all property and income, it will only amount to a few shillings an acre on land, and could be met by the tax, of a few pence per acre. The practical question has nothing to do with these statistical imaginations. There is only one difficulty, and that is the possible unwillingness ofJFrance to take the only right course. But if Prance will be content with her old very respectable position in the world, she may reduce her expenditure by a sum which will go far to pay tho interest both on the indemnity and on her own war costs.