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71. When the Diet has closed before it has acted upon the Budget, it will then be said that ‘it has not voted on the Budget.’ When in one of the Houses the Budget has been rejected, it will be considered ‘not to have been brought into actual existence.’ Further, when the Diet has been either prorogued or when the House of Representatives has been dissolved, before a final vote has been taken upon it, the Budget will have no existence until the next opening of the Diet. When the Diet has not voted upon the Budget or the Budget has not been brought into actual existence, the result will be, in extreme cases, the destruction of the national existence, and in ordinary ones the paralyzation of the machinery of the Administration.

72. The Budget is the first piece of work of the yearly financial business, while final accounts are the concluding piece of the same. There are two ways in which the Diet can exercise control over financial operations: one is a preceding, the other a subsequent control. By preceding control is to be understood the power of giving or of withholding consent to the Budget for the coming fiscal year, while by subsequent control is meant the power of verifying the statement of accounts of the past fiscal year. For submission to subsequent control the Government has the duty of laying before the Diet the final accounts that have already undergone verification by the Board of Audit, together with the report thereon of the said Board. The functions of the Board of Audit consist—first, in verifying the vouchers of the accountants of the different branches of the Administration, and in discharging them from responsibility; secondly, in control over the measures of the authorities possessing the power of issuing warrants on the Treasury, and in examination as to whether or not there has been any disbursement exceeding the estimated appropriation, any expenditures not provided for in the Budget, or any operation in violation of provisions of the Budget or of any law or Imperial ordinance; thirdly, in verifications of the general accounts of the national Treasury and of the reports on final accounts of the various departments of State, in comparing the above with the amounts disbursed in the different branches of the Administration, as reported to the said Board by the different accountants, and in thus confirming the general final accounts as well as the reports on final accounts of the different departments of the State. The administrative verification made by the Board of Audit prepares the ground for the legislative one by the Diet. In the Diet the report of the Board of Audit and the final accounts of the Government will be received at the same time, and the latter will be approved and confirmed when they are considered to be correct. For the