Subsidy

(sub'se-de.) [From L. subsidium.] (Pol.) A sum of money given by the government of one nation to that of another, for the immediate purpose of serving the latter, and the ultimate one of benefiting the former. Thus Great Britain subsidized Austria and Pru ia to engage those Powers in resisting the progre of the French in the time of the first Napoleon. It is also employed with reference to the payment of public money to a company towards the support of a line of steamers, or ofa theatre, as in France. [s. 863]