+-----------+----------=--------------+------------+ | |Exchequer |Diff. between | | | Year. | Accounts.| Actual Rev. | Difference.| | | | and Aud. Exp.| | +-----------+----------+--------------+------------+ | 1888-1889 | £2,799 | £1,968 | £-831 | | 1889-1890 | 3,221 | 3,383 | +162 | | 1890-1891 | 1,757 | 1,644 | -113 | | 1891-1892 | 1,067 | 1,303 | +236 | | 1892-1893 | 20 | 17 | - 3 | | 1893-1894 | -_170_ | -_265_ | - 95 | | 1894-1895 | 765 | 1,055 | +290 | | 1895-1896 | 4,210 | 4,364 | +154 | | 1896-1897 | 2,473 | 2,546 | + 73 | | 1897-1898 | 3,678 | 3,681 | + 3 | +-----------+----------+--------------+------------+ | Total for | £19,820 | £19,696 | £-124 | | 10 years | | | | +-----------+----------+--------------+------------+
The third column in the above shows the price which has to be paid (in the form of discrepancies between facts and figures) for the simplicity secured to statements and records of the national finance by the present system embodied in the term exchequer. Probably few will think the price too high in consideration of the advantages secured.
The principal official who derives a title from the exchequer in its living sense is, of course, the chancellor of the exchequer. He is the person named second in the patent appointing commissions for executing the office of lord high treasurer of Great Britain and Ireland; but he is appointed chancellor of the exchequer for Great Britain and chancellor of the exchequer for Ireland by two additional patents. Although, in fact, the finance minister of the United Kingdom, he has no _statutory_ power over the exchequer apart from his position as second commissioner of the treasury; but in virtue of his office he is by statute master of the mint, senior commissioner for the reduction of the national debt, a trustee of the British Museum, an ecclesiastical commissioner, a member of the board of agriculture, a commissioner of public works and buildings, local government, and education, a commissioner for regulating the offices of the House of Commons, and has certain functions connected with the office of the secretary of state for India. The only other exchequer officer requiring mention is the comptroller and auditor-general, whose functions as comptroller-general of the exchequer have been already described.