◆¹ And now let us turn to the National Debt and to the railways. The entire interest of the one and the entire profits of the other, would, if divided equally amongst the population, give results a little, but only a little, larger than the rental of the large landlords. But here again, if the poorer classes were spared, and the richer investors alone were singled out for attack, the small dividend of perhaps one penny for each man daily, would be diminished to a sum yet more insignificant. How true this is may be seen from the following figures relating to the National Debt. Out of the _two hundred and thirty-six thousand_ persons who held consols in 1880, _two hundred and sixteen thousand_, or more than nine-tenths of the whole, derived from their investments less than _ninety pounds_ a year; whilst nearly half of the whole derived less than _fifteen pounds_. [Sidenote ◆1 The Monarchy costs so small a sum, that no one would be the richer for its abolition.] ◆¹ And lastly, let us consider the Monarchy, with all its pomp and circumstance, the maintenance of which is constantly represented as a burden seriously pressing on the shoulders of the working-class. I am not arguing that in itself a Monarchy is better than a Republic. I am considering nothing but its cost in money to the nation. Let us see then what its maintenance actually costs each of us, and how much each of us might conceivably gain by its abolition. The total cost of the Monarchy is about _six hundred thousand pounds_ a year; but ingenious Radicals have not infrequently argued that virtually, though indirectly, it costs as much as _a million pounds_. Let us take then this latter sum, and divide it amongst _thirty-eight million_ people. What does it come to a head? It comes to something less than _sixpence halfpenny_ a year. It costs each individual less to maintain the Queen than it would cost him to drink her health in a couple of pots of porter. The price of these pots is the utmost he could gain by the abolition of the Monarchy. But does any one think that the individual would gain so much—or indeed, gain anything? If he does, he is singularly sanguine. Let him turn to countries that are under a Republican government; and he will find that elected Presidents are apt to cost more than Queens. [Sidenote ◆1 All such schemes of redistribution are illusory, not only on account of the insignificance of their results,] [Sidenote ◆2 But also on account of a far deeper reason, on which the whole problem depends.]