The Americans are a great people, in nothing greater than
in their marvellous tolerance for corruption. It is asserted, on the authority of Members of Congress, that clauses have been inserted in the Indian Appropriation Bill under which £2,000,000 at the least has been voted for " suspicious " pur- poses having no connection with Indian affairs. The appropria- tion itself is double the largest sum ever previously voted, and it is declared that under it £300,000 has been voted to pay the Arapahoes, and £600,000 to pay the Ohooktaws, for pre- cisely the same tract of land, which, of course, they cannot possess in common. It is not clearly stated who will benefit by this " steal," but it is definitely pointed out that the Senate sanctioned the vote, and that the House of Representatives, after the blunder bad been pointed out by the Secretary of the Interior, refused to cancel it, the inference naturally being that the money will be spent on the expenses of the party campaign. This Congress has been all along spending national money for the pleasure of spending, its appropria- tions in its two years of existence having been £201,000,000,. or £60,000,000 in excess of the average of eight pre- vious Congresses ; the Pension List alone has been swollen to more than £30,000,000 sterling. It is at this point that democrary breaks down, both in America and France, and will break down in England. The temptation to rob the Treasury is too great for the virtue of poor men.
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