UNITED STATES. FRANCE. _Treasury Department_. _Ministere des Finances_ Messenger . . . $ 700 150l. Huissier, 3,500 fr. . . 60l. Clerk with lowest salary Clerk with lowest salary, . . . 1,000 217 1,000 to 1,300 fr. . 40 to 72 Clerk with highest Clerk with highest salary salary. . 1,600 347 3,200 to 3,600 fr. . 128 to 144 Chief clerk . 2,000 434 Secretaire-general, 20,000 fr. 800 Secretary of state . 6,000 1,300 The minister, 80,000 fr. . 3,200 The President . . 25,000 5,400 The king, 12,000,000 fr. 480,000 I have perhaps done wrong in selecting France as my standard of comparison. In France the democratic tendencies of the nation exercise an ever-increasing influence upon the government, and the chambers show a disposition to raise the lowest salaries and to lower the principal ones. Thus the minister of finance, who received 160,000 fr. under the empire, receives 80,000 fr., in 1835; the directeurs-generaux of finance, who then received 50,000 fr., now receive only 20,000 fr. [172] See the American budgets for the cost of indigent citizens and gratuitous instruction. In 1831, 50,000_l_. were spent in the state of New York for the maintenance of the poor; and at least 200,000_l_. were devoted to gratuitous instruction. (Williams's New York Annual Register, 1832, pp. 205, 243.) The state of New York contained only 1,900,000 inhabitants in the year 1830; which is not more than double the amount of population in the department du Nord in France.