The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-07-04 00:00:00

RETORT ON THE CIVIL LIST.

Mr. ALEXANDER brought up the report of the
Committee of Suprly relative to the Civil List. On
the question for the second reading of the Reso-
lutions ;

Mr. jOHNSTONE rose to oppose it. He said,
the public were, in his opinion, highly indebted to
the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Addington) for having
hid the papers before the House, relative to this
:lilies There were many parts of these accounts '
which he could not at all approve, but as to some of
them, the House was in such a dilemma that they
eonld not refuse their assent. It seemed the Judges
of the Land and Foreign Ministers were in arrear,
and though he could not refuse his assent to such
things being provided for, the House, he thought,
should take some precautionary measure that such
an application might not occur again. He could b) no
means agree, he said, in the inferences drawn from
the arguments used with respell to the hereditary
revenues which were always brought forward to in-
sinuate dust the public was only paying a debt, when
it WAS called on for such large sums. On the con-
; f; y, he thought His Majesty had been fully corn-
) e•t‘ated for the hereditary revenues. With rr sped
fo the ankle of pensions, he should have no arjec-
'ion to the 82,0001. a-year. it that was all ; bat
there were others, which amount to .200,0001. and
that he thought was fully sofficient for pensions given
a. el ivate remunerations; all the great public pen-
:, e, being provided out of the consolidated fund.
I siliseseed. that in class 7, there had been a saving
r.; mi,olt. and, in another part. there was another
s iv;ng f I'o,oool. which, he thought, with due
seconorl :be Right Honourable Gentleman, pos-
e•ssed of such talents as his were, might have made
to answer any of the pre-ont exigencies, without
C:l7ning to parliameut for this very extraordinary
a.i !liion to the Civil List revenue. He agreed, lie
• 1, to she necessity of a much more antpie provi-
' fr.: the iii;rlornatie corrs. 1-k thought they
s el.; be tals, n out of the civil list, and put to the
,-sulidatexl fund. It WAS eer ainly of the very
tr,t importance that the country dinuld enjoy the
Rtt.tt benerit of having mea of high charAaer and
taler.ts as public fuleftionaries at foreign coni!s; and
that we should not, a. he was afraid had tor' •ff?rt
b.- :the case, see.l m-is to represent liis Ma'esty
because thy cannot well live at h. me.
th ::ght th. it v..e► wraug to bring Lim:lrd a

measure of this marittnl: ant importance, in so
very advanced a period of the Sessions, and of the
year. It ought not to be pressed further at present,
but postponed till nex t Sessions, then the House shauld
carefully turn their attention to some efflbau.il mode
of preventing any such enormous accumulation in
future. He could not see why some arrangements
with regard to the Civil List, should not be made
on a similar plat to that adopted for managing the
afairs of the Prince of Wales. That was done in
oi der to prevent arrears from :leaning, and he be-
lieved it had answered the ends proposed, and some-
thing of the kind might be applied to the Civil List.
Mr. ROSE said, that if this matter was only just
now brought before the House, the objeCtions of
the Hon. Gernlentan, as to the advanced period of
the year, mi have some w;•ig!it ; but he begged
the Hon. Gentleman and the House to tecollee
that it had already been submitted ton Committee,
and that the papers relative to it, had been on the
table three or four months.

Mr. CA LC RAF!' said, the fait was shortly thi.,
that the House is going now to add 60,0001 a year
to the Civil list, more than what was fixed as the
expenditure eighteen years ago. 1% hen it was re-
colleCted how great a change,had taken rime in the
circumstances of the times, :Ind in the price of every
necessary of life, this addition appear-d to :tint to
be necessary, otherwise debts must accumulate, and
the applications for similar aids must be continually
repeated.
Mr. W. SMITH said a few words to the same
purport.
Mr. ADDINGTON said, the lion. Gentleman
(Mr. Johnstone) had complained of want of notice
he begged the House to recodee, that he gave no-
tice of his intention to bring the business fora ard on
the 7th of May, and the circumstance whit.h pre-
vented it were too well kry:wii for him to trouble the
House with them at tit it 1(.• neat.

rn. EXCHEQUER
said, it was : itogether ualiec .ur tura to she's
that it was insposubh, for him to bring this measure
fursv ud soiner Tha: must tr-• obvious to every
une. tie should, b.;wever, have b?en highly itiex-
cos•able is he ha ! rot brought it forwi.rd euriug
the prest t ias6l.-,1 that, notv.itirta-.d.
P_ i been said with regard to the rim,
nuthing r ought to be rzlosidered as an addi-
tion to the Civil L.st, but tile 60;401.

The resolutions were then re-ad .:nd agreed to, at,d
Bills e•rdered to be brought in 11, Te.m.
It was orderc that tt be an inbtruetion to the
Gentlemen appointed to bring i:i die Bill, on the
st•cmid resolution, to provide for laying an account
the Civil Litt before Parliament.