The Democratic majority in the American House of Represen- tatives
have begun their work of reducing expenditure. They have appointed a Committee, which has decided to reduce the Foreign-Office expenditure by £60,000 a year. The Ministers to Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia are each to have £2,800, General Schenck, however, getting an additional £500 a year for an amanuensis. The Ministers to second-class Powers are;to have only £1,300, and the Minister in Liberia £800. The Secretaries of Legation, who, under the American system, do most of the work, are to draw only £525 in the four great States, and in others £360, while all Consuls' salaries are to be reduced ten per cent. The whole arrangement seems to be rather spiteful than statesmanlike, and the niggard allowances to the Secretaries will be most mischievous. Fancy paying a man like Mr. B. Moran £525 a year to live hi London It would have been wiser to give the Secretaries the Ministers' salaries, and give the latter nothing. There are rich men enough willing to accept positions so pleasant and great, and with no interests of their own to serve.
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