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98 The Budget for 1902 provided for seven and a half million yen; the estimated revenue was placed approximately at the same figures, the balance between expenditure and revenue being 653 yen. It will be seen, therefore, that there is little reason for the financial difficulties in which the Throne is placed. If it were not that his Majesty frittered away his income upon the purchase of land, the adornment of his Palaces and his person, his relatives, his women, and the perpetual entertainment of his Court, this chronic impoverishment of his exchequer would not exist. Moreover, at least one quarter of his revenue is appropriated by the native officials through whose hands it passes. Under these circumstances he has never been averse from accepting the assistance of interested parties; but this ill-omened relief does not free the country from its burden of mortgage and taxation.

The disbursements upon the different departments engage the revenue to a degree which is out of all relation to the precise utility or importance of any of these fantastic bureaux. The War Office claimed in 1901, in round figures, more than three and one half million yen, and the Foreign Office a quarter of a million yen, the Finance Department three quarters of a million yen, the Palace a little more than one million yen, and the Home Department a little less than that amount. One million yen is roughly £100,000. The amount paid to the War Office for 1902 was, in round figures, very nearly three million yen; to the Foreign Office, something in excess of a quarter of a million yen; to the Finance Department, rather more than half a million yen. The Departments of Law, Agriculture, Police, Education, and Communications in this highly expensive and totally inefficient administration, all make good their claims