Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/494

474 and of the mint, subjoining a list of twenty-six other items of duty with the annual amount receivable from each, and concludes with an abstract statement of the annual expenditure and a short account of the public debt.—To render this account practically available for the elucidation of the present system of the receipt and expenditure of Guatemala, it is necessary to advert to the fact that, for the general expenses of the republic, only four items of duty are available; and these must be separated from the others which are applicable only to the wants of the respective states in which they are collected. Thus the financial system is divided into two heads: there is the general system of the federation, and the individual systems of each respective state. With regard to the latter, it is not possible to deduce any accurate results: each of the five portions of the federation passes its laws for its own internal guidance, raises its own revenues, and regulates its disbursements. The