in political economy, denote the revenues of a king or state; analogous to the treasury or exchequer of the English, and the fiscus of the Romans. The word is derived from the German finanz, "scraping, usury." Though Du Cange chooses rather to deduce it from the barbarous Latin financia, pretlatio pecuniaria.

Council of the Finances, under the former French government, corresponds to our lords commissioners of the treasury; the comptroller general of the finances, to our lord high treasurer, &c.

The French had a peculiar kind of figures, or numerical characters, which they call chiffre de finance.

FINCH-KIND, in Ornithology, a genus of birds known by the name of Fringilla. See Fringilla, Ornithology Index.