easury, in their report on this,
as well as other points, concerning the revenue, and dated October
24, 1792. From the net proceeds of the gunpowder the expenses of its
manufacture, confided to the commandant of artillery, ought seemingly
to be deducted; but, as they cannot be ascertained with any degree of
certainty, and as besides they are comprehended in the general expenses
of that department, a separate deduction may be dispensed with.

[Disbursements and general expenses.] In order to form a correct idea
of the annual amount of the expenditure incurred by the administration
and defence of the Philippine Islands, it is not necessary in this
place to distinguish each item, separately; or to enumerate them
with their respective sums or particular denominations. Some general
observations on this subject ought, nevertheless, to be made, with a
view to point out the reforms of which this important department of
the public revenue is susceptible.

In the part relating to the interior administration or government,
ample room is certainly left for that kind of economy arising out of
the adoption of a general system, little complicated; but it is besides
indispensably necessary that, at the same time the work is simplifed
and useless hands dismissed, the salaries of those who remain should
be proportionally increased, in order to stimulate them in the due
performance of their duties. It might also be found advisable to
create a small number of officers of a superior order, who would
be enabled to co-operate in the collection of the king's revenue,
and the encouragement of agriculture, commerce and navigation,
in their respective departments. The additional charges in this
respect cannot be of any great consequence; although, in reality,
by the receipts increasing through the impulse of an administrative
order more perfect, and the expenses being always the same, the main
object, so anxiously sought for in another way, would be thus attained.

[Defence expenses.] The reverse, however, happens with regard
to the expenses of defence, as I have called them, the better to
distinguish them from those purely relating to the interior police
or administration. Every sacrifice, most assuredly, ought to appear
small, when the object is to preserve a country from falling into the
hands of an enemy, and it ought not to excite surprise, if, during the
course of the last fifteen years, several millions of dollars have been
expended in