sh budget gave the First Lord of the Treasury, to cover
the expenses of that great and important department of the British
monarchical government, 60,222_l._, or nearly 4,000_l._ less than the
Republicans of the Third French Republic have generously put at the
disposal of M. Constans to 'combat conspiracies' against the life of a
Republic of which in the same breath we are asked to believe that it has
just been acclaimed with enthusiasm by the masses of the French people,
as the fixed, final, and permanent government of their deliberate
choice!

At this rate it will actually cost the taxpayers of Republican France
more than two-thirds as much merely to keep the Republic from being
suddenly done to death some fine day between breakfast and dinner, as
it costs the taxpayers of Great Britain to keep up the state and dignity
of the British sovereign from year to year! The total annual amount, I
find, of the Civil List of Great Britain annually voted to the Queen, of
the annual grants to other members of the Royal Family, and of the
Viceroyalty of Ireland is 557,000_l._ Of this amount the Hereditary
Revenues, surrendered to the nation, cover 464,000_l._ This leaves an
annual charge upon the taxpayers of 93,000_l._ sterling, or only
29,000_l._ more than the sum deliberately voted by the Republican
Chamber at Paris into the hands of M. Constans to be by him used in
'combating conspiracies' against the Republic!--or, in other words and
in plain English, in making things comfortable for his political
friends, and uncomfortable for his political enemies!

And this, observe, is a mere supplementary adjunct to the budget of this
energetic and admirable minister, that budget having been fixed by the
late Chamber for 1890 at 61,291,256 francs--or, in round numbers,
2,451,650_l._ sterling--of which handsome amount 13,059,570 francs, or
522,383_l._ sterling, being the outlay on the Central Administration and
the prefectures, must be added to the 1,200,000 francs, or 48,000_l._
sterling, of the Presidential salary and allowances, in order to give us
a basis for a fair approximate comparison of the cost to republican
France of her executive President and prefects with the cost to
monarchical Great Britain of her executive Sovereign, lords-lieutenant,
and Viceroy of Ireland. Stated in round numbers, the result appears to
be that for their republican President and their eighty-three republican
prefects, the taxpayers of France pay annuall