The System of Financial Administration of Great Britain.

Abstract

The casual reader may be surprised at the small amount of space devoted to the discussion of the appropriations in Parliament, but this is right, because, in fact, those debates relate to the political and not the financial aspects of the matter.One can say of the relation of the House of Commons to the financial adniinistration what Bagehot said about the relation of good ministers to departments, that it is not their business to manage the finances, but to see that they aire properly managed. The unity of the financial management, that which makes it rational, depends upon the fact that the authority and responsibility for appropriation and expenditure is lodged in one hand, that of the ministry in power.For we must remember that, although the imposition of taxes and the raising of revenue thereby is a legislative matter, the expenditure of the money xi