4 THE POLITICIAN S PRIMER. 



Before quitting this important subject, we may perhaps be per- 

 mitted to make some observations relative to the revenues of states 

 whose budgets offer certain branches of the receipts, which we may 

 assimilate to the sources of revenues of states that we consider are not 

 in the domain of statistics. For instance,in the receipts of the kingdom 

 of Sweden, we must take into consideration the considerable revenues 

 which the possessors of military fiefs enjoy, either for the support of 

 the " indelta," or the unpaid permanent army, or that of the unpaid 

 crews of the fleet. Very considerable sums, which never appear 

 in the budget, must also be added to the general receipts of the 

 Austrian empire, on account of the immense landed possessions of 

 the government, which serve to support the numerous army of 

 agricultural soldiers established along her military frontiers. We 

 shall not speak here of the military colonies of Russia, because the 

 extraordinary expenses which their foundation naturally required, 

 has increased the budget of expenditure rather than that of the 

 receipts. But the finances of the Russian empire present, more than 

 any other state in Christendom, a host of direct or indirect revenues, 

 of which due accounts should be made in a comparative table. We 

 shall discover them in Schnitzler's important work on the Russian 

 empire, in which he has given, with singular talent and industry, the 

 most authentic data that have yet appeared upon the statistics of that 

 large portion of the globe. Certain particular revenues, says this able 

 author, such as the fisheries on the river Oural, never appear in the 

 budget, seeing that they serve to pay, or are assigned over in perpetuity, 

 either to individuals or classes of men. Whole governments are 

 sometimes required to furnish the necessary objects for the supplies 

 of the army, instead of taxes, levied upon others ; and the value of 

 these are never introduced into the budget; besides, the rates at 

 which the government receives these supplies, enables it to make 

 considerable profits on the transaction. Labour in the mines, the 

 transport of metals and of salts, replace in some districts the capita- 

 tion tax, or at least a portion of it. Whole tribes, again, are exempt 

 from it on condition of doing military service whenever they are 

 required by the Emperor. Some nations pay their tributes in skins 

 or furs, which are wholly employed for the use of the army, and 

 which never appear in the budget: neither do the marbles and 

 precious stones, which the state derives from its own domains ; the 

 cannon-balls furnished by its founderies ; and a thousand other 

 objects, that in any other country would swell the budget of expen- 

 diture. In carrying into that of income the net produce of several 

 public works carried on to the profit of the government, no account 

 is made of the expense of transportation and labour : charges which 

 fbr other articles figuring in the same list, are deducted from the net 

 produce. All these different sums, added to the budget of income, 

 would augment it considerably. And thus it is that so many objects 

 of supplies, equipment, and construction so many hands, which 

 elsewhere must be paid, and which in Russia are at the free disposi- 

 tion of the government, explain more or less the comparative small 

 amount of her expenditure. If to this we add, that the public 



