must be very energetic in their action. Probably ferric | hydrate, the last product of oxidation, takes an active part in separation of the organic matter, transferring oxygen to it. Again, spongy iron is known to be very energetic in precipitating any lead or copper. Its reduction of the hardness of water presents some difficulty. This filter, we may add, recently gained the prize medal for general excellence given by the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, and has been otherwise commended.

The subject of cistern filters (of which there are many varieties) need not detain us long here. The arrangement adopted by Lipscombe, shown in fig. 6, may be taken as an example. The impure water passes through the inlet into the chamber of the filter, thence upwards through a plate of porous stone, then through powdered charcoal into the pure water reservoir, whence it may be drawn off cold by the pure water tap, or hot and pure from the boiler. When the filter is in action, the grosser impurities are stopped by the porous stone, while the finer pass into the charcoal and are chemically acted on. Each time the unfiltered water tap is opened to obtain water, unfiltered water enters the inlet and scours out the impurities in the chamber. To clean the filter, once every six months or other period, a plug is drawn up by means of a galvanized chain (attached as shown) from the top of the filter and dropped into the inlet. The unfiltered water tap is then turned on several minutes, so that the cistern water rushes down through the filter and out of the tap, carrying out impurities from the filter.

In the filtration of water for supply of towns, galleries of masonry are often constructed in the sand and gravel forming the river bed or banks; the water percolates through and enters these tunnels at the bottom and by side channels; it is thence pumped to the town. Genoa, Toulouse, Lyons, and Perth present examples of this system, which is apt to prove rather costly. The system of artificial filter-beds of sand resting on gravel, etc., is now more generally adopted. It was first introduced into London by Mr. Simpson, in 1839, after a study of various works in the north, and especially of the costly experience of Glasgow. For the Chelsea Water Company he had a series of tunnels built of brick without mortar; these were covered with a layer of fine gravel 2 feet thick, then a 2-feet stratum of fine gravel and coarse sand, and lastly 2 feet of fine sand, or 6 feet in all. The sand was periodically removed to the depth of about half an inch. To the filter bed, covering 1 acre, were attached two reservoirs, slightly higher; into these river water was pumped, which, after time for subsidence, was admitted to the filter beds through small pipes.

The eight Water Companies of London all use similar beds, increasing in coarseness downwards, of various depth and proportion of materials. A sharp siliceous sand is preferred for the upper bed (the true filtering agent), and the stratum is seldom made less than 2 or more than 3 feet thick. Sometimes this bed is laid immediately on a bed of small shells.

It is considered that filtration through sand, to be effective, should not proceed more rapidly than 6 inches of descent per hour (in the London beds the rate varies from 25 to 107 inches), and that there should be about 14 square yards of filtering area for each 1000 gallons per day. The depth of water maintained on filter beds varies between 1 foot and 7 or 8 feet. The inlet arrangements should be such as to produce little disturbance of the sand in charging; thus the water may be admitted into a long trough from which it gently overflows, or through an inlet pipe carried to the centre of the bed and turned upwards (at Chelsea the water enters through a wall of gravel between two horizontal concentric arches of brickwork with vertical joints). The beds are drained variously, e.g., by means of perforated stoneware pipes, or pipes with open joints, sometimes leading into a brick culvert which traverses the bed. A good method of draining is that of Mr. Muir, adopted by the New River Company. It consists of two courses of bricks laid flat and dry; in the lower, the bricks are placed end to end in series alternating with half-brick spaces which serve as drains leading to a central culvert; in the upper course, the bricks are laid close together, forming a floor, on which a thin layer of fine gravel supports a bed of sand. Filter beds require to be cleaned, at intervals varying from one week to six or eight, by removal of about half an inch of sand. The clean sand remaining is loosened with a rake and exposed to the air some time, then smoothed

over. The filter bed may be made with several compartments, some of which may remain in action while others are being cleansed. There are various contrivances for washing sand previous to its replacement. Filter beds are sometimes arranged to be cleansed by a reverse current sent upwards with force,-an operation which may be aided by stirring the surface sand after the water has come above it. Such a system is practised, e.g., in the Greenock, Paisley, and Dunkirk water works. At the last-named place, washed coke is among the filtering agents used. (For an account of the works at Dunkirk see Engineering, vol. xiv. p. 206.) In the system of M. Maurraz the water is filtered both per ascensum et descensum, the two portions of water, which flow in opposite directions, uniting at the middle. The sand is retained in closed and perforated boxes. This filter also permits of cleansing by reversal of the current. Mr. Spencer's carbide system has been applied successfully on a large scale at Wakefield and other places, the carbide layer being combined with others of sand and gravel. With carbide, the total thickness of bed may be considerably reduced. Filtering is frequently practised by the chemist. And whereas in the ordinary filtration of water above described the purified liquid is the object of the process, while the matter retained is merely to be got rid of and destroyed, the reverse may be the case in the laboratory, the retained matter being sought, while the "filtrate," as it is called, is disregarded. For most laboratory preparations the material used is unsized paper. Swedish filtering paper (which is prepared with very pure spring water) possesses the advantage of filtering very rapidly, and of being singularly free from inorganic matter. Cloth is employed in the case of viscid liquids such as syrup or white of egg; while corrosive liquids may be filtered through pounded glass. Asbestos is a valuable filtering material, since, by making it red hot, all organic matter may be destroyed, and acid and alkalies have scarcely any action in it. Being nearly indestructible, it can be repeatedly used. Glass-wool has also of late years been recommended.

Paper filters, to be placed in a funnel, are sold ready cut of circular shape. The paper is folded twice to the form of a quadrant, and this, when half opened, forms a cone, whose edges meet at an angle of 60°. To facilitate passage of the filtered liquid, small folds are sometimes made in the filter all round. In a filter devised by Bunsen, the neck of the filter is inserted in the caoutchouc stopper of a lower vessel, and through this stopper also passes a tube connected with an exhausting apparatus. The production of a partial vacuum below accelerates the filtering process. Sometimes substances have to be filtered under the influence of heat, as they solidify at ordinary temperature. In such cases the funnel may be surrounded by a sleeve containing water, which is heated with a lamp.

In Robinson's oil filter, oil is forced up from a cask into and through the filtering apparatus (containing charcoal or other medium) by water entering below from an upper reservoir. Sundry modes of filtration practised in the arts (sugar-refining, etc.) will be referred to elsewhere. In some of them centrifugal force is employed.

Circumstances are not uncommon in which it is very desirable to remove impurities from air by a process of filtration. Cutlers and other grinders use respirators to arrest the small particles which would otherwise find their way into the lungs. For steel particles magnetic gauze is an efficient protective. Professor Tyndall's respirator for firemen consists of an iron cylinder, attached to a mask, and containing charcoal, and three layers of cotton wool, one moistened with glycerine; the ends of the case are of wire gauze. With this respirator it is possible to enter an atmosphere of dense smoke and remain in it over a quarter of an hour. The disinfecting properties of charcoal have been turned to good account by Dr. Stenhouse for purifying air, the substance being used in the construction of respira tors, or at the outlet of sewers, etc. An interesting application of the principle was made in the justice room of the Mansion House, London, in 1854, where offensive smells originating just under one of the windows were effectually removed. There are various devices in existence for purify ing the air admitted to railway carriages and other inclosed spaces. Thus the air may be passed through wire screens, or through a spray of water, etc. In connection with biological research and the germ theory of disease, the removal, by filtration, of minute foreign particles from air is a mat ter of great moment.

For further information see, among other works, Humber's Water Supply of Cities and Towns, 1876; Sixth Report of the Royal Commission on Rivers' Pollution (published in 1875); Lancet Sanitary Commissioners' Report on Filters, 1867; Wanklyn and Chapman's Water Analysis; Philosophical Magazine, 4th series, vol. xii. p. 30 (Witt); Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, May, 1867 (Byrne); Paper by Mr. Pearse, on Water Purification, Sanitary and Industrial, to Society of Engineers, March 4, 1878; Paper by M. Bischof, on The Purification of Water, to Society of Arts, April 25, 1878; Registrar-General's Returns for 1876, etc.; Chemical News, vols. xxxiii. and xxxiv. (Wanklyn, Hildebrand); Dictionaries of Ure, Knight, TomlinBon, Watts, etc. (A. B. M.)

FINALE DELL' EMILIA, a town of Italy, circle of Mirandola, province of Modena, is situated on the right bank of the Panaro, 10 miles from its junction with the Po. It receives its name from its situation on the border line between the duchy of Modena and the States of the Church. It has manufactures of silk and woollen fabrics, and some trade in corn, wine, hemp, and fruits. Finale owes its origin to a castle connected with the monastery of Nonantola. The town was taken by the imperial troops in 1703 on its being abandoned by the French. It was again taken by the French in 1704, and by Prince Eugene in 1706. The population in 1871 was 4456. FINANCE. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the words finare, finacio, and financia were employed, principally by writers in France, to denote those bargains by which the indefinite liabilities of ancient tenures were commuted for fixed sums payable to the immediate lord of the tenant. It was at this time that the commutation became general, except when the service of the tenant was of a military or dignified character. Even here, however, a remarkable innovation was made at an early period in English social history, on which we shall comment presently. In course of time the word finance became nearly synonymous with the product of taxation, and the finances of a country (though the phrase is sometimes used to denote the aggregate revenues of those who are liable to taxation) are understood to be the ways and means by which the expenditures of government, imperial and local, are met. In the present article we shall deal with the history of finance only. Under the head of TAXATION, the reader will find an analysis of the economical theory, in accordance with which taxation is shown to be innocuous and equitable, or the reverse.

The most ancient forms of finance have always been taxes on produce. Such appear to have been the taxes of ancient Egypt; such were and still are the principal taxes of Turkey and Hindustan. Whatever may have been the character of the first agricultural settlement, the development of a central government has always been assisted by a theory that the true lordship of the soil is the property of the state or the ruler, on which the immediate occupant of the soil is dependent, and to which a portion of the produce is due. The conquests of Rome always involved a confiscation of the vanquished nation's land, and the re-grant of a portion of the confiscated estate on what we might call by analogy a base tenure. In the same way, when in the 10th and 11th centuries the Christianized Teutonic tribes of northeastern Europe pressed on the heathen Slavs, the victory of the former was always followed by the establishment of a military and well-endowed church, on which a third of the conquered territory was generally settled, the vanquished race being permitted, though in a state of dependence, to occupy the residue. The settlement of gina and Euboea by the Athenian lot-holders, to say nothing of more ancient occupancies, was of the same character. Here indeed the state distributed the ownership which it had acquired by its arms among its citizens, though doubtless it claimed military service from them as a garrison, and probably exacted a revenue which was similar in its

nature to a rent.

The financial system of ancient states was, as a rule, exceedingly simple. The charges of government were few, except in the vast despotisms of Asia and Egypt, and later on in the great military republics of Carthage and Rome, where the revenues of the king and state were derived from tribute in money or kind from inferior or dependent districts and races. The district of the Aristotelian ideal city (Politics, vii. 10, 11) is to be divided into two portions, one the property of the state, out of the produce of which the charges of the national religion and the costs of the common tables are to be supplied, the other to be

held in private ownership. The philosopher does not contemplate the necessity of making provision for the ordinary charges of government. The magistrates were unpaid; the army was a militia, serving at its own charges. When the Lacedæmonians undertook the command of the allies in the Peloponnesian war, they had no public revenue. Later on in their history, we are told by Aristotle that the public exchequer of the Lacedæmonians was ill managed, for most of the land of Laconia belonged to the Spartiats, and they assessed themselves.

The beginning of Athenian finance was a revenue derived from the silver mines in the promontory of Sunium, the ownership of which was, it seems, vested in the state. It was the practice of the Athenian Government to grant a perpetual lease of allotments in these mines, and to exact, moreover, a small percentage on the produce, reserving to itself a right of forfeiture and re-entry if the terms of the lease were infringed, or the produce rents were unpaid. With the proceeds of these mines the Athenians built their first navy, and with this navy they won the victory of Salamis, thus paving the way to their naval supremacy.

The next great source of Athenian revenue was the contribution from those protected states which failed to supply a proper naval contingent for the defence of the Egean. Most of the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the islands owed their security from the attacks of the Phoenician navy, then dependent on Persia, to the vigorous and effective sea forccs of the Athenian republic. It was cheaper for them to commute their contingent for a money payment, and the police of the sea became far more efficient when wielded by a single power, which had every interest in bringing its navy to the highest pitch of serviceableness. The Athenians contrived to economize, and, later on, to increase the contributions of those states whom they protected. Considering that they had fully satisfied the terms of their own bargain if they thrust back the Persian despot, they concluded that they might fairly accumulate a surplus in the public treasury, and even expend a portion of their revenues in embellishing their city. We may be certain that the power which this revenue gave the Athenian republic was the chief cause of that jealous fear which precipitated the thirty years' war of the 5th century B.C., and which produced results as disastrous to the progress of mankind as a war of the same duration twenty centuries later did on the rapidly growing civilization of central Europe. So desperate and so penniless were the military rivals of Athens, overwhelming as their land forces were, that they even thought of appropriating the sacred treasures of Delphi, a proposal, in the 5th century before Christ, which was as shocking as it would have been in the 12th century after Christ to have suggested that the sacred vessels and shrines of the great churches and monasteries should be coined in order to pay the soldiers of the crusade.

The finance of antiquity derived a revenue from customs. These customs were, at least in Athens, an ad valorem duty of two per cent. as a war measure. Twelve years before the conclusion of the great thirty years' struggle, the Athenians levied a five per cent. ad valorem duty on their subject cities, though this was in substitution for the old contribution on account of the police of the seas. A poll-tax was levied on foreign residents, perhaps on slaves; and it appears that, possibly as a measure of police, another poll-tax was imposed on the inmates of disreputable houses.

The revenue, therefore, of that Greek state whose history is best known to us was derived from the rent of public lands, especially the mines, from a composition paid by the allies in lieu of naval service, from very moderate customs duties, and from a few personal taxes. It must not, however, be imagined that the finance of antiquity was successful in the eyes of those who saw how inelastic it was. There is still extant a treatise by a very practical man. Xenophon, in the oldest work on finance, discusses the means by which the Athenian home revenue might be conveniently increased, and, like many other speculative thinkers, suggests projects which would have created far more mischief than they would have remedied. It will be obvious, also, that by far the most important item in Athenian finance, the contributions from the allies in lieu of personal service, was necessarily precarious, and that when the Athenian empire was finally broken up, the rev

enue of the state was gone, while the necessity of finding ways and means for the public defence was as urgent as

ever.

was the highest act of worship; the chief of the gymnasts exercised authority over his staff of competitors in the public games, and was even empowered to compel parents to allow their children to take part in the contest. The equipping, manning, and provisioning a hull was captain of the vessel, and though he was liable to a due performance of his service, and subject to an audit on the termination of his year of office, he exercised full authority during his command, and might be, indeed was, rewarded for exceptional diligence and smartness during the period of his office.

The principal liturgies, as they are called from the Greek word quoted above (the word is suggestive of the process by which it was finally appropriated in the ecclesiastical Vocabulary), were three in number, two religious and one secular. The tendency of a religion like that of Greece, in which so much nature-worship was contained, was to associate many of the acts of life with religious ceremonies, and, as culture progressed, with art. Thus the drama of antiquity arose from the worship of the wine-god and the vintage, and the arts of sculpture and painting had originally a similar religious origin. The dramatist who succeeded in securing a representation of his composition had assigned to him a citizen whose wealth was sufficient to defray some of the charges of representation, as the instruction, maintenance, and dresses of the actors. A second and similarly religious service was the public games. Here again a considerable portion of the expenses incurred in the performance were imposed on wealthy persons. The third was the trierarchy, the equipment and command of a ship of war. The state supplied the ship, the trierarch its stores and tackling, and in some cases provisions and pay. In return, the trierarch was captain of the ship. This arrangement is closely analogous to that financial arrangement in England by which, after the Revolution, local regiments were raised, clothed, and officered by wealthy men, who had in return the colonelcy of the regiment, and the right of appointing its subordinate officers.

The liability to these charges, distributed, as it seems, at the discretion of the Government, was a serious charge on the wealthy. Hence, when the state fell on evil days, and reverses had impoverished the Athenian people, persons were allowed to club together in order to supply these public functions. To abandon them would have been to incur the wrath of the gods, or imperil the safety of the state. The modern critics of Greek sentiment are amazed at the fact that only on the very eve of the great crisis in which the fate of Greece was finally determined, the battle of Charonea, Athens reluctantly devoted the taxes which had hitherto been employed for ecclesiastical purposes to the pressing necessities of the public defence. The theoric fund was that portion of the revenues of the state which was assigned to those sacred purposes. It was distributed nominally among the spectators as the price of tickets for admission. It actually was paid over to the managers of those public buildings in which the ceremony was per

formed.

If the person on whom the duty of supplementing the charges of the state was imposed conceived that he was unfairly selected, or asserted that his means were inadequate for the purpose, he was allowed to name another citizen to whom he could proffer an exchange of property. In this offer the other was bound to acquiesce, unless he consented to allow himself to be substituted for the individual on whom the duty was originally set. In short, the possession of property involved serious liabilities in Athens, though it seems that men of substance gloried in the satisfaction of these public charges, and completely conformed themselves to public opinion. For it will be found to be a fundamental law in successful finance that those imposts are always found to be most productive which are most in accord with public opinion, and that in the selection of a system of taxation it is not always possible to adopt that which is most expedient or even most just, but that which can be most readily enforced and is most willingly accorded.

The property tax was a contribution which did not make the tax-payer conspicuous, and did not confer on him any distinction. The impost dates from the earliest records of the Athenian constitution. It was graduated, being a heavier percentage in the case of the richer citizens than in that of the middle classes. It passed through several notable changes, always, however, in the same direction, the particulars of which are well given in Boeckh's Public Economy of Athens. But the principles of the assessment are very simple, though the process by which the result was finally arrived at is somewhat artificial. The property of every Athenian citizen was assessed, whether it were movable or immovable, and the amount was entered in a public register. The assessment included the value of slaves, manufactured goods, and raw materials. A register of the assessment was open for examination, and undoubtedly re-valuations were frequent. The state was informed as to the property which each citizenand indeed every resident alien-possessed, and made this property the basis of direct taxation. It then proceeded to divide all assessments into several schedules, assuming in each schedule a variable quantity, varying from a fifth to a tenth, as the taxable property of the individual. On this sum it levied a fixed rate. Thus, if a very wealthy man possessed an estate valued at 500 talents, i. e., nearly £122,000, his taxable wealth was treated as £24,400, and a five per cent. tax, £1220, exacted from him; while the owner of property valued at 25 minæ, i. e., about £101, 10s, the lowest sum apparently which was liable to property tax, found his property assessed for purposes of taxation at £10, 3s., and his property tax of five per cent. at a little over 10s.

In the budget speech which the great statesman of the Athenian empire delivered before the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, and of which Thucydides gives us the heads, we learn that the revenue of Athens from the contributions of her allies amounted on an average to 600 talents (£147,250) a year, and that there was an existing accumulation of treasure in coined silver amounting to a million and a half sterling, besides other immediate resources. It is to be regretted that the historian did not supply us with further particulars as to the finance of his country during the period of her greatest wealth and power. These resources, had Athens merely carried on a defensive warfare, would, as the statesman justly argued, have rendered the country not only unconquerable, but practically invulnerable.

The high rate of interest, and the general insecurity of society, excluded the states of ancient Greece from having recourse to regular loans, though not from attempting to meet current exigences by anticipations of revenue. Occasionally portions of the revenue were assigned to creditors; sometimes the public lands were granted for a term, during which the principal and interest might be repaid. Instances may even be found in which the state issued a currency of tokens, which fulfilled some of the functions of state paper in modern times. Another financial expedient, always followed by the most mischievous consequences, was occasionally adopted, the issue, namely, of a debased currency. But from this fraud Athens always kept herself free, not only inflicting the punishment of death on those who put base money into circulation (the criminal code of Athens having been generally very lenient), but abstaining in her deepest distress from the temptation of supplementing her revenues by the temporary issue of base money. So studious was Athens of her reputation in this respect that, when she was the home of the fine arts, she continued to maintain the clumsy archaic type of her coinage, although the arts of die-sinking and coining were carried to perfection in states which were far less