The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-08-02
British MilliOniares.


studied subject, the history OF property.
we publish list. compiled from the IL
Illustrated London News, of all British
fortunes exec edlng a quarter OF million
personally which had been transferred
by death within the decade. The list,
which was the first of its kind, and ex-
cited at the time preposterous amount
of interest showed that within ten years
ten persons had died in Great Britain
leaving mere than el, 000. 900. fifty.three
leaving more than E5OO,OOO and 16l
leaving more than e150 coo. We prom
Use to repeat the list 1T the end OF another
decade.
This life is a disappointment. We
had expected that the number would
have doubled, or at least greatly in
creased, and that the scale of fortunes
would be much larger but this is not
the case. The number of fortunes rang
ing between flO0, 600 and f250, 900 has
increased enormously, and is now far be-
You'd anything we care to print, and a
fact perceptiblc in the old list might
have been made a marked feature in the
present one. The wealthy of the world
are investing in England very largely
indeed, especially the Spanish-Americans
who find it convenient to place q section
of their often gigantic fortunes beyond
the reach of plumber. But, excluding
a Rothschild, whose wealth is Of seper-
ate kind, there is no double millionaire
in the list, and no man whom the rich
Americans and the cosmopolitan Jew
millionaires, with there fingers in every
pie, would allow to be possessed of o
first class fortune. No one approaches,
even at distance, the wealth of W. H.
Vanderbilt or Jay Gould, and no ones
personally enables us to compare him
with first class English landed proper.
ty. About ESQ 900 year would repre-.
sent the very highest sum on the list.
No British subject, in fact, has left
wealth so large as to raise social ques-
ton or seriously affect the Budget, and
the fact is very curious one.
It is, of course, in part explained by
the method Of competition. These re-
turns are based on the payments made
for probate duty on personally, and do
not include land and houses, or the
enormous masses of wealth now held
abroad which, though liable to income
tax, escape legacy duty altogether.
MuCu III tulS mdbS OCAOu6o w OuC NCAy
rich, who have accurate information,
who like good percentage, and who are
in many cases haunted by an idea that
distribution in many countries is equiv
alent to insurance. The English hold
ings in the rentes of oil countries, in
railways and banks abroad apd in for
eign house property elude this list alto
gether, as do also the immense sources
of wealth classed as businesses" with
their offices outside of Great Britain.
Still, we are surprised at the figures.
Only thirteeDmen have left more than a
million, only fifty six more than half a
million and only one hundred and ninety.
five more than q quarter OF million.
That is an increase among millionaires
of 30 per cent, among half millionaires
of per cent. and among quarter mil
lionaires of Is per cent, and We ex-
pected the number to be doubled. Con-
sidering the increase of opportunities,
there must be some cause operating
against excessive accumulation, and We
are happy to believe it is reluctance to
spend life in mere amassing, which pre-
vents the children of millionaires-who,
in England, are usually cultivated
from treading in their fathers footsteps.
They either retire altogether from such
work or pursue it with certain lsnguor
and end by merging themselves in the
ordinary aristocracy, who hunt down the
exceptional wealth with persisteucy and
success.
Still, what list it is! Among all those
millionaires and demi millionaires and
quarter. nillionaires, there is only one
great grandee, the late Duke of Port.
land, whose eccentric wastefulness did
not in the least impair his magnificent
income; only three or four peers and not
above ten persons who were at all widely,
not to say nationally, known. The i'm
mense majority we're quiet traders. bank
ers, man ufacturers, ironmasters and the
like, who lead usually quiet though
wealthy lives. spent money on collec-
tons and gardens. and were unknown
even to those who make It business to
know. They represent the profits of
trade and that is all, and their wealth in-
creases the wages fund without disturb
ing the social calm. II they do good, it
is generally by cultivating art; il they
do harm it Is by keeping up a standard
OF outlay which destroys much OF this
ease and enjoyment Of social life and
would, anywhere but in England, make
the able restless and disconnected. Here,
however, the wall which surrounds pri-
vate life is seldom broken, expenditure
is apt to be steadily profuse rather than
ostentstious, the love Of country secln-
sion is deep rooted and ambition il much
more common than scrid envy. The