We are acquainted with the sum total of the charges of the State; we know the amount of the departmental expenditure; but the expenses of the communal divisions have not been computed, and the amount of the public expenses of France is consequently unknown.
If we now turn to America, we shall perceive that the difficulties are multiplied and enhanced.

The Union publishes an exact return of the amount of its expenditure; the budgets of the four and twenty States furnish similar returns of their revenues; but the expenses incident to the affairs of the counties and the townships are unknown.

*k [Footnote k: The Americans, as we have seen, have four separate budgets, the Union, the States, the Counties, and the Townships having each severally their own.

During my stay in America I made every endeavor to discover the amount of the public expenditure in the townships and counties of the principal States of the Union, and I readily obtained the budget of the larger townships, but I found it quite impossible to procure that of the smaller ones.

I possess, however, some documents relating to county expenses, which, although incomplete, are still curious.