ing it) is disposed of.

L1,000,000 goes to pay the interest of a continually accumulating
debt, contracted by the priests, and for the priests, annually
increasing through the bad administration of the priests, and carried
by the priests to the debit of the nation.

L400,000 is devoured by a useless army, the sole duty of which has
hitherto been to present arms to the Cardinals, and to escort the
procession of the Host.

L120,000 is devoted to those establishments which of all others are
the most indispensable to an unpopular government: I mean, the
prisons.

L80,000 is the cost of the administration of justice. The tribunals of
the capital absorb half the amount, because they enjoy the distinction
of being for the most part composed of prelates.

The very modest sum of L100,000 is devoted to public works. This is
chiefly spent in embellishing Rome, and repairing churches.

L60,000 goes in the encouragement of idleness in the city of Rome. A
Charity Commission, presided over by a Cardinal, distributes this sum
among a few thousand incorrigible idlers, without accounting for it to
anybody. Mendicity is all the more flourishing, as is apparent to
every one. From 1827 to 1858, the subjects of the Holy Father paid
L1,600,000 in mischievous alms, among the injurious effects of which,
the principal was to deprive labour of the hands it required. The
Cardinal who presides over the Commission takes L2,400 a year for his
private charities.

L16,000 defrays poorly enough the cost of the public education, which,
moreover, is wholly in the hands of the clergy. Add this moderate sum,
and the L80,000 devoted to the administration of justice, to a part of
the L100,000 spent on public works, and you have all that can fairly
be set down as money spent in the service of the nation. The remainder
is of no use but to the Government,--in other words, to a parcel of
priests.

The Pope and the partners of his power must be indifferent financiers,
when, after spending such a pittance on the nation, they contrive to
wind up every year with a deficit. The balance of 1858 showed a
deficit of nearly half a million sterling, which does not prevent the
government from promising a surplus in the estimates of 1859.

In order to fill up the gaps in the budget, the Government has
recourse to borrowing, sometimes openly, by a loan from the house of
Rothschild, sometimes secretly, by an issue of stock.

In 1857 the Pontifical Government cont