The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-02-11 00:00:00

"THE QUEEN'S PAY."
Mom the 144 y News.)

As some of the working classes, encouraged by men who
enzht to be better informed, seemed to have Inaccurate
notion. of the pecuniary relations of the nation swish it•
Sovereign and of the obligations of the ration in consequence
of tbose relations to the Royal Family, It is worth while, in
the Interests of all classes of the am:hank, to point out
what those relations are.

What a working man, at a late meeting, more probably
from punchy of langn sge than it Isretpeci, Tidied the "Queen's
'Pal,'" or the sum Puni hy Statute 1 , 10.7, " for the uailt-
tanance of the Queeres household, and the koaretr and
leignity of the ('row,'" emonnte In gross to fat,: 000 a PAT.
Besides beteg Sovereign, the Queen is also lon hese o Las.
nester, and derives trios her well-managed dival n"ssoagoas
a farther varying annual income, Oversell, g, say, £26,000. It
1., however, the former amount only that cornea not of the
Cconlidated Fend—that is, out of the rev.-m,lO, of the him,.
loin and from Elm 00 end' rivet no,t arm la fairly de-
duami, before estimating the 'Loyal nallotial Income, the
charge thrown on the Ll•t, for penalcus, at the rate of
£I,IIOO a year, for vith am, e yeoslons the ~.verelgo her.
sonelly hag really nothing to dn. What their :mom it 111,w
reaches does nut appear The 0101 Litt ol 13,5 WO Is afro
slarged w,th .C 13.000 a year for " Boys) boulsl, alms, and
ppeohsj cervices," whi..h fall on the Queen as represeoting
,l
.o nation,esty. cad diminish the income personally enjoyed by
at;

. -
Whatever the net Income of the Q.teen under the Art of
1,97 may he, ft le notoriour —I. Thai It 13 less in amount
thai that of her 1110s:01i preile,esars for the last 170
years, and In purchashig power than during by far the
greater part of that period : 2 1 hat it does not reach the
Income peetnet by the other great Anverelgue of Europe:
3 That Queue Victoria has not exceedet In her ethenditure,
2A molt of her predecesenre to (hint &no de-, to r Civil Li 'C
and 4, has not ha.l the other uccur.i.ey r, e I i fl thy
cne and ell had:from Q4een Anne down to William IV.
Queen Anne bad an annual provision from Parliament of
£BOO.OOO a year, whereon debts accumulated oaring the
twelve yeare of her reign of £1,2,0,000, 'shill Parliament
hat to diabarge. George I. had a GOall Liet of Moeller
linuarrlt,.but in a reign of twelve years Parltement had to
pay Its debt! to the extent of £1,000.1 00. In the 33 Snare of
the ram of Osorne 11. the debts on his evil lAet of £000,0,0
were 4456,000 which were alth discharged hy Peritainent,
and In the latter years of his rule the taxes :leagued
to Inni for the CI•il Mt, there I , rug then no (' .oli-
Aated Frond to charge it or, i v.-Auer-1 more than
the £OOO,OOO by about halt see Woo. re 11311 lArt of &ors
waa originally er re It
wea increased to £o' ,1 • • i ' ' L..
latter years of his life it vote auements to .t.l 03%0 'O. 1.,
thaless In the course of his relen of 60 years debts on his
Civil List were honk' ated op Parliament out of taxation by the
'Ma of In tile reign, too, the cannel revenue.
Coil Oslts of iha Co lee which had not been surrendered to
the nett, Li) OW. V/0. of 'IN hich £4,40?,000 were
received 11 the King for *hit. 'personal use. And, until the
then Felons of Wales reached his majority, George I bi. took
fog ti 4141111 the income the Pnchy of Cornwell. The Civil

UilióoilV. was £510,000, and that of William IV. the
name amount. Neither of these Monarchs incurred debts
that Parliament had to meet. but both in addition to the
Civil List were in receipt of the revenues of the Duchy of
Cornwall.
No doubt the Civil Vets of the first Cone of there Move-
reL as were charged with some public liabilities, and abumd
ll,restricted pensions from which the present Civil lost
In Ina But the value of money was generally in those
Mgue, part of that of Georye excepted, much greater
thus. it now sit the Slyer*us of the louse of Hanoi, r
had Incomes derived from that kingdom, which the Qneen
has not ; and they all had inherited private fortune., while
hr Majesty inherlteo nothing, and had her father's debts to
hey on her accession to the throne. Daring all them reigns
Pub-meat made separate provisions for the members of the
Roy ai Family.
The Civil Lists of our Sovereigns have In the main been
especially appropriated by Parliament inning the last three
reigns In schedules attsched to the Acts granting them; and
the appropriations of the last compared with those of the
estatuag reign were:—

KING WILLIAM V. QUEEN VICTORIA.
Privy Puree £llO.OOO Privy Purse ..... £60,000
Salariesof flousehrld 130,000 Salales and Allow.
Expenses Of House- anal. of Household 131,000
hold
Special and Secret hold ............ 172,000
Services— •• 23 000 Royal Bounty Alms
Pffi.ionii •••• • • 70,000 and Special Ser-
vices
Pensions of £1,200
I a year
Unappropriated /Mtn 8,010
In the former reign the privy purse appropriation included
that of Queen Adelaide, who, on hec, ming Quern Dawager,
had a charge on the consolidated Fund of £lOO,OOO a near:
whereas the grant to the late Prince Consort w. only £3O 070
a year. And as the former Sovereign had no children, while
her Ila:raty had nine children, who remained and remain a
charge on the Civil List until otherwise provided for, the
boric n on her Civil List has of course been much greater
than that on the Civil List of King William. la etwithstand-
ing the greater pressure, and by means of order and economy,
the present civil List haa been sufficient for the Queen's ex-
penditure and the nurture and education of the Royal
Family, and out of Its economies Osborne has been purchased
and bffilt and Is malutatued•

These Civil Lists have been granted to the four last
Sovereigns on their surrender to the rettion of the Royal
hereditary revenues, the casual revenues and droltr of the
Crown excepted. This arrangement, originally pecuniarily
advantageous to the Sovereign, has, by improved care and
management of the Royal property so surrendered, now
become profitable to the scum. Tiers, in the accatints of
the receipts ant expenditure of the Commissioners of
her 51111cety's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues for
the year ending list March, 1409, there will he found
two items paid into the Consolidated Fund—that Is, to
the netion—amoontlng to £440,200, or £7l 206 In
excess of the Civil List of the Queen paid out of the Consoli-
dated Fund ; and already to the course of ,the present foam
dal year the Crown Lends have contributed to the revenue
of the kingdom the sum of £331,0th. This considerable
pecuniary balance In favour of the nation on the arrange-
ment of 1837 for the mainterance of the Sovereign and the
hoe our and dignity of the Crown is, moreover, irrespective
of the other substantial advantages the country derives from
the arrangement, to the great pecuniary detriment of
the Sovereign were no such arraugement in east-
lace; for the hereditary possessions of the Crown Include the
ancient parks In aml storied London, which, devoted, in con-
nequence of their-transfer against the Civil Ithrt, to the nal lea,
are applied towards t me health, the recreation, and enj qr.
meet of the population of the metropolis. Without a (lull
lest charged on the Consolidated Fund, and throwu on the
hereditary posseselous of the Crown for the maintenance of
her homehold, arid to support the honour and dignity of
she Throne, the S rvereign would he free to utiliel all
It qal property after the manner In which the Marquis of
Westminster, the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Bedford,
and other great metropolitan proprietors Insee uttherd their
estates in and about London and the result would be. that
while London would be deprived of its ancient parks, 0 wen
Vlctena would be In possession of a touch larger Income than
£384.000, and he in a position to amply provide, without the
assistance of Parliament, for her family.

The Civil List arrangement puts the public in full posses-
sion of these metropolitan amenities, and a large •nnual
profit out of the hereditary possessions of the Crown
alt, r payment of a Civil List of £355,000 a year. But
it throws on the nation the obligation of providing
for her Majesty's children on their maj Tity or marriage,
and that obligation Parliament has unhesitatingly performed
hi reference to the Prince of Wales, the Duke it I.lllnburgb,
the Crown Princess of Prussia, Princess Louis of 'lease,
Prinaws Christian of Schleswig. Iloletein ; and will shortly be
it don to perform tow ards the Princess Louise and l'ilhoe
Arthur.