CHAPTER XIII. Quarterly's remarks on American statistics. General and State expenditure.-General Bernard's and Mr. Cooper's estimates. 66 66 AFTER some preliminary remarks, the writer of the article, “ Progress of Misgovernment," observes, that "we are not to infer that there is no unnecessary expenditure under the American system," and that in fact those establishments which they have in common with us are not " on a much more economical scale than our own." He differs from the Revue Britannique, inasmuch as he says, "It is true that the salary and establishment of the President are framed on a scale of severe republican simplicity." "But," he adds, "on the other hand, be it remembered, there are certain other civil disbursements, in the shape of salaries, from which our monarchical establishment is exempt. Be it remembered that, besides the two Houses of Congress, there are twenty-four local Houses of Representatives and twenty-four Senates* continually in existence, and during a considerable * This is not precisely the case: in Vermont, for instance, there is no senate, and the Upper House in New Jersey is styled the "Legislative Council;" but this is immaterial to the general argument. portion of the year in actual session, in the several States, &c., &c., and that every one of these delegates is paid, those serving in the general congress receiving as much as eight dollars, or about 17. 16s. per day, during the session, besides a like sum for every twenty miles of distance from his residence to the seat of congress." In all this information the reviewer is generally right, as well as in all the other facts taken from the tables appended to Captain Hall's Travels*. But his mode is quite different of bringing forward his proofs of the assertion in the former part of his * The manner in which his subsequent calculations are made, reminds one of that part of Captain Hall's Travels, where a characteristic conversation is given between a shrewd old Irish settler and a land agent :-on asking the old emigrant for information about the settlement, he began to suspect some lurking motive in these, as he thought, leading questions-"What shall I say to the gentleman, sir ?"-" Why, Cornelius," said the agent, "tell the truth." "O yes, of course, sir, we must always tell the truth, but if I only knew what the gentleman wanted, I would know which way to answer—in short, should I overstate matters, sir, or should I understate them? shall I make things appear better or worse than they are?” It may possibly be recollected by more than one member of our own legislature, that there were modes some years ago of making out parliamentary calculations, very much upon the principle of the Irish emigrant ;-at least, such things have been asserted, and the calculations of the Quarterly remind one strongly of this sort of over and under statement. remarks, viz., that the expenses of the government under the American system nearly equal those of Great Britain. He does not calculate the mean amount of public charge borne by each individual, the mode adopted by Captain Hall, the Revue Britannique, Mr. Cooper, and General Bernard, but, taking certain parts of the American expenditure, compares their gross amount with the corresponding items in the English budget. He thus obtains 624,5387. for the entire civil expenditure of the American republic (which we shall not at present analyse, but allow for the sake of argument to be correct). He then turns to statements laid before parliament, and finds that our civil list, salaries and allowances paid out of the consolidated fund, our courts of justice, amount to 1,269,7657. But as he says, "these are expenses which ought necessarily to bear a direct proportion to population, if not to wealth;" and the population of Great Britain and Ireland being about 24,110,125, he, by assuming that the expenditure of the Union shall increase pro rato with its population, it follows, that when it shall have attained twenty-four millions, "the expenditure will be fifty-seven thousand pounds more than ours!". To obtain this singular result, it is true, as the Quarterly observes, he has indeed left out "the par liamentary pensions and annuities, granted for the most part in consideration of eminent public services"-because, forsooth, there is no corresponding item in this department of the American accounts: this omission, which many people might be inclined to think not wholly unimportant in a comparative estimate of the expenditure of the two governments, is subsequently rectified by taking the amount of the revolutionary pensions in the United States, and by setting them off against the parliamentary pensions, he still gets a balance in favour of America of no more than 166,3657. In the first place it must be remarked, that the Quarterly, in common with Captain B. Hall, and the writer in the Revue Britannique, is wrong with respect to the amount of the State expenditure, and in consequence all their calculations are wide of the truth: allowing that the mean, taken from the tables of Captain Hall, is correct as applied generally (and it is far from being so, by reason of the preponderance of the richer and more populous States in the calculation), it seems to have been quite forgotten, that a very small part of this nominal amount is really a charge upon the tax payers. In almost every State a considerable share of the expenditure is covered by the interest of different funds; in many, a large portion of the State budget is appropriated to internal improvements, which become in their turn I sources of public revenue*. Such are the great canals of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, &c. By making the requisite deductions, according to the best information that I have been able to obtain, from the sums paid throughout the Union to the support of the State expenses, I think that something more than one shilling sterling (instead of three shillings, áccording to Captain Hall and the Quarterly) is about the amount of the mean charge for State expenditure. But this amount cannot, without possessing more local information than most foreigners can obtain, and devoting much time to the subject, be given with any accuracy. It will be probably better therefore to take the calculations of General Bernard and Mr. Cooper as our guide on this head. General Bernard takes an average of the expenditure of two of the richest and most populous States of the Union, viz. New York and Virginia, and thus obtains one franc 32 centimes as the maximum per individual of annual charge. By not being aware of the real nature of the State budget, the Revue Britannique, * Thus in Pennsylvania, for instance, nearly two millions and a half are given as the State expenditure; but it should be observed, that at the time that Captain Hall alludes to, some millions had been employed, in the course of two or three years, by that State, for making a canal, afterwards to become a profitable source of revenue to the State itself; and consequently the two millions and upwards were far from being the true amount of the usual State expenditure, and so of other States. |