CHAPTER XI. General Bernard's remarks.-Department of state and foreign affairs. War department.-Treasury department.-Administration centrale, &c.-State expenses.-Tolls and public roads. Clergy.--Militia.-Summary.-Mean expense to each individual in France and America of public charges.-Extract from General Bernard's letter GENERAL BERNARD observes with great truth, that in comparing the public expenditure of two such countries as France and the American union, placed under such essentially different circumstances, not only is industrious research necessary, but a perfect knowledge of their respective financial systems. But to expose the inaccuracy and exaggeration of the Revue Britannique, he thinks it unnecessary to do more than to lay before his readers some positive data, which he does in the form of an analysis of the French and American* budgets in parallel columns, with the corresponding items opposed to each other, so as to enable the reader at a glance to compare the amounts either in detail or otherwise. His valuation of the dollar is at 5 francs 25 centimes. * Vide Appendix. In examining the different items of the United States' budget, given by the general, it will be perceived that what is called the department of state corresponds to three departments of the French administration, viz. Les Ministères des Affaires Etrangères, de la Justice, et de l'Interieur; and that a deduction is made from the latter of 91,513,517 francs, appropriated to the ponts et chausées, mines, lignes, télégraphiques, and public works, &c. It must also be observed that the war department of the United States includes some public works, internal improvement, and Indian affairs, which, being taken out of the calculation, make the relative expenses Ministère de la Guerre 187,200,000 fr. In the treasury department he includes the pensions to the officers and soldiers of the revolution, and in the Ministère de la Finance, the pension list of France. The cost of the different public offices taken together (l'administration centrale), compared with the whole budget, is in France 1-59th, or about 1 and 7-10ths per cent; in the United States 1-53d, or about 1 and 3-10ths per cent, which difference may be regarded as null, by bearing in mind that expenses of this central administration must the diminish in its ratio to the whole budget, in proportion as the budget itself is augmented. With regard to the post-office of the United States, it must be observed that this is not a branch of public revenue-it is so managed as to cover its expenses excepting those of the general post-office establishment, clerks, &c., i. e. l'administration centrale, which is paid by the treasury. These expenses amount to 1-30th part of the total expense. In France they are much higher. འ The expense of collecting the revenue, customs, &c. of France is about 11 per cent, that of the United States 3 and 4-10ths per cent; by taking together the expenses of administration, and those of collection of the revenue, compared with the whole budgets, we get for Before General Bernard proceeds to examine in detail the calculations by which the author of the article in the Revue Britannique brings about a result so extraordinary in his comparative estimate of the burdens borne by an inhabitant of France and an American, viz. that the public charge of the United States is, per head And in France 35 francs. he makes some general remarks, and says, with apparent justice, that there must be a great bias in the judgment of any one who could suppose that under the numerous favourable circumstances upon which he touches, as the geographical position of the United States, the commercial prosperity, small standing army, varied products, non-interference in the wars which have cost so much to other countries, and particularly, that with the form of its government (which he characterises as "les belles institutions politiques qui regissent ce grand pays”), it is difficult to understand how any impartial person could come to this extravagant conclusion. "Pour arriver à cet étrange resultat," the author in the Revue asserts that the expenses of the different state legislatures taken en masse are equal to the federal budget. Thus: He divides this sum by what he supposes to be the amount of the population of 1830, i. e. 11,000,000, and thus obtains as the annual expense for each individual thirty-five francs. The smallest error in this calculation is in the 113 amount of population for 1830. The census for which was, according to General Bernard, 12,856,497. This, allowing the above calculations of the author, would give twenty-seven francs thirty centímes, instead of thirty-five francs. The general points out the sources of the extraordinary errors in the calculations of the reviewer, and makes many very judicious remarks, which, however, as being chiefly made with a view to comparing the statistics of France with those of the United States, I shall only succinctly notice; and all observations on similar mistakes that have been made by the Quarterly and Captain Hall, shall be reserved until I come to examine their respective statements. First, The state expenses are made by the Revue Britannique to amount to 131,000,000 francs, instead of which the general, by a calculation which is noticed in another chapter, produces 16,970,576 francs as the maximum of the aggregate state expenses of the union. Certainly a most remarkable difference. Secondly, With respect to the tolls and turnpikes, this item might be fairly taken into consideration in a comparative estimate of the general expenditure of France and the United States, inasmuch as, there being no turnpikes in the former country, all the expense of making and repairing P |