| 145,166⅔ | |
| County levy, for bridges, court houses, prisons, &c. | 40,000 |
| Members of congress, | 7,000 |
| Quota of the Federal civil list, supposed 1⁄6 of about 78,000, | 13,000 |
| Expenses of collection, 6 per cent. on the above, | 12,310 |
| The clergy receive only voluntary contributions: | |
| suppose them on an average ⅛ of a dollar a tythe on 200,000 tythes, | 25,000 |
| Contingencies, to make round numbers not far from truth, | 7,523⅓ |
| 250,000 |
Dollars, or 53,571 guineas. This estimate is exclusive of the military expense. That varies with the force actually employed, and in time of peace will probably be little or nothing. It is exclusive also of the public debts, which are growing while I am writing, and cannot therefore be now fixed. So it is of the maintenance of the poor, which being merely a matter of charity, cannot be deemed expended in the administration of government. And if we strike out the 25,000 dollars for the services of the clergy, which neither makes part of that administration, more than what is paid to physicians or lawyers, and being voluntary, is either much or nothing, as every one pleases, it leaves 225,000 dollars, equal to 48,208 guineas, the real cost of the apparatus of government with us. This, divided among the actual inhabitants of our country, comes to about two-fifths of a dollar, 21d. sterling, or 42 sols, the price which each pays annually for the protection of the residue of his property, that of his person, and the other advantages of a free government. The public revenues of Great Britain, divided in like manner on its inhabitants, would be sixteen times greater. Deducting even the double of the expenses of government, as before estimated, from the million and a half of dollars which we before supposed might be annually paid without distress, we may conclude that this State can contribute
