PUBLIC EXPENDITURE. It is through the expen diture of public money that the State works in all of its activities, and it is the first duty of the science of finance to determine their nature and scope. Finance accepts public expenditures as a fact. It is not concerned with justifying them, either in whole or in detail. Whether a given expenditure is proper is in part a question of political philosophy, in part a of prac tical expediency. The former may influence gem eral lines of policy in this respect. though in practice each proposed public expenditure is apt to be judged on its own merits. The grounds upon which such proposals are approved or re The evidence upon this point is cumulative, but not comprehensive. The division of authority between national and local governments mate rially enhances the difficulty of ascertaining the aggregate expenditures for all public purposes within a given nation. The distribution of ex
penditures between the national and local gov ernments differs widely in the various countries; and for this reason it is necessary to exercise great caution in comparing the national expendi tures of modern States. For national expendi tures the figures are generally available. We borrow' from Professor Adams a table giving the national expenditure in millions of dollars for a number of States from 1830 to 1S90, to which we have added, from the latest sources, the figures for 1000: jetted lie outside the domain of finance. But the fact that expenditure is made is of prime im portance, and, scrutinizing the expenditures which are actually made. finance seeks. by classifying them, to arrive at the laws of their development.