h. The statement of receipts and
expenditure is prodigiously laconic. I have now before me the
estimates prepared for 1858, in four pages, the least blank of which
contains just fourteen lines. The Finance Minister sums up the
receipts and the outgoings, both ordinary and extraordinary. Under the
head of Receipts, he lumps the whole of "the direct contributions, and
the State property, 3,201,426 scudi."

Under the head of Expenditure, we read "Commerce, Fine Arts,
Agriculture, Manufactures, and Public Works, 601,764 scudi." A
tolerable lump, this.

This powerful simplification of accounts enables the Minister to
perform some capital tricks of financial sleight of hand. Supposing,
for instance, the Government wants half a million of scudi for some
mysterious purpose, nothing is easier than to bring their direct
contributions in as having paid half a million less than they really
have. What will Europe ever know about the matter?

"Speech is silver, but silence is gold."

Successive Finance Ministers at Rome have all adopted this device,
even when they are forced to speak, they have the art of not saying
the very thing the country wants to hear.

In almost all civilized countries the nation enjoys two rights which
seem perfectly just and natural. The first is that of voting the
taxes, either directly or through the medium of its deputies; the
second, that of verifying the expenditure of its own money.

In the Papal kingdom, the Pope or his Minister says to the citizens,
"Here is what you have to pay!" And he takes the money, spends it, and
never more alludes to it except in the vaguest language.

Still, in order to afford some sort of satisfaction to the conscience
of Europe, Pius IX. promised to place the finances under the control
of a sort of Chamber of Deputies. Here is the text of this promise,
which figured, with many others, in the _Motu Proprio_ of the 12th of
September, 1849.

"_A Consulta di Stato_ for the Finances is established. It
will be _heard_ on the estimates of the forthcoming year. It
will examine the balance of accounts for the previous year,
and sign the vote of credit. It will give its advice on the
establishment of new, or the reduction of old taxes; on the
better distribution of the general taxation; on the measures
to be taken for the improvement of commerce, and in general
on all that concerns the interests of the public Treasury.

"The C