That congress is to be the body that should finally determine the amount of money to be available each year for the support of the various branches of government no one questions. In exercising this function, however, congress has open to it a wide range of discretion. It can do as the British parliament did for centuries after it had taken to itself the power of the purse, vote a lump sum, or, what was the same thing, the total product of certain taxes, for the support of the government, leaving it to the executive—the crown—to apply this sum to the various objects of government as its discretion dictated. Or it can do, as parliament now does, specify in general terms the manner in which this total shall be distributed among the several branches of government, leaving to the executive the authority to allot these sums more specifically. Or, finally, it can do, as congress now in great part does, attempt to set forth in the greatest practicable detail the precise manner in which the sums voted shall be applied.