JTOW TO RAISE REVENUE. 725 



ment^ the Treasury authorizes the Inland Revenno and Customs 

 officials to levy the modified rates in a manner that seems to them 

 most expedient. 



Any surplus of income over expenditure for any year is de- 

 voted to the diminution of the public debt, but so carefully and 

 with such system is the business of collecting and of its expending 

 revenue conducted by the British Government, that except under 

 very unusual conditions, the two accounts, separately aggregating 

 at present about $450,000,000 per annum, balance each other with 

 almost marvelous closeness. Thus, for the fiscal year 1893-'94, 

 a period of great fiscal disturbance and trade depression, the 

 revenue collected and expended was within one half of one per 

 cent, in a total of $450,000,000, of the budget estimate, while the 

 amount of revenue paid out to meet expenditures was about 

 one quarter of one per cent less than the estimates; the whole 

 constituting a most striking testimonial, first, of the solidity of 

 the British financial system, and, secondly, of the great sagacity 

 and experience of the able permanent officials on whom the finan- 

 cial administration of the greatest empire and government of the 

 world mainly depends. 



Recognizing also that a rigorous supervision of the govern- 

 mental estimates and warrant for expenditures by the House of 

 Commons is not possible under the circumstances of parliament- 

 ary life, an audit department of the civil service has been created, 

 whose business it is to examine the accounts and vouchers of the 

 expenditures in every branch of the public service ; and in addi- 

 tion to this, the House of Commons at every session appoints a 

 public accounts committee of its members, consisting of experi- 

 enced business men, whose duty is to supervise the work of the 

 audit department. Under such a system extravagance, not to 

 speak of peculations, in respect to the public funds is impossible ; 

 and general recognition of this fact goes far to explain why 

 the House, irrespective of any political differences of its mem- 

 bers, readily grants the sums of money asked by the existing 

 ministry. 



There is another feature of the parliamentary government of 

 Great Britain which is well worthy of serious attention on the 

 part of the American public and its representative law makers ; 

 and that is, that by a standing order of the House of Commons 

 no member of the House, unless he is charged with the adminis- 

 tration of a department, and therefore with the duty of framing 

 the fiscal estimates of such department, can, however eminent, 

 influential, and capable he may be, on his own authority propose 

 in Parliament to grant any sum of public money, however small, 

 to any object, however deserving. The theory of this is, that the 

 Government, which is the ministry in power, is entirely responsi- 



