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.