The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-05-10 00:00:00

g 41(40 interests of society, or even of what would
most contribute to their own advantage, as to press
for a measure which must, if carried into effect,
destroy in the first instarice the stride and commerce
of the empire, and finally involve themselves in
the general ruin. They have already obtatned vast
cancesAimos, which have been fraught with injury
even to thetnselves, and ran hope for nothing more.
The voice of the country is opposed to them, stud
his 114,jeroy's Altutsters have pledged themselves
not to o'looml:time toy further extetattoto of the re-
strictiar prmemle.

Lord Joitm RUSSELL obtained leave, without
any oppositi 1111 l to bring iu his Bill for disfranchis-
ing the. borough of Grampound, and transferring
the right of election to Lreils.
The case of the notorious Edwards was again
submitted to the Honor by Mr. Alderman Woo°,
who moved that a Committee should be appointed
far receiving the evidence to which lie alluded on a
former night. The debate was inteiesting, but
the motion was rejected.

The amount of the Civil List must be considered
as having been determined on M lay night, so
far as the opinion of the (loose of Commons 14
concerned. The matter was decided in an off-
handed, gentlemanly way, without soy hesitation or
shew ofjealeousy, and merely on the demand of his
Majesty's Ministers. The Members its opposition
indeed suggested the expediency of delaying the
grant for a few days, for the purpose of mscertaiti-
log whether, in the present embarrassed state of the
country, some economy might not be introduced
in the arrangements of the Civil List ; but they we►e
told that their demand was unprecedented, sod in-
consistent with the respect due to the majesty of
the Royal Personage. A Civil List, therefore, of
1,050,000/. was immediately voted, upon some ex-
travagant estimates framed wider circuinstnoces far
diffcrent from those iu which the country i. unw
placed—prepared by persons not interested io say-
ing the public money—and never subjected to any
examination whatever.

It cannot be forgottro that when the Committer
was appointed in 1815, to examine the state of the
Civil List, and suggest such an increase in the
amount as they might deem expedient, they altoge-
ther omitted the fir.t part of their duty, while they
not only proposed • considerable increase io the
amount of the Civil List, strictly so called, but
transferred to the Consolidated Fund severd
charges which had previon*ly been defrayed out of
the foods of the Civil List. The proposed exa-
initiation was then pcotponed at the recominenda-
tion of the Ministers of the Crown, until the com-
mencement of a new reign, which they said would
offer the fittest opportunity fur conducting such
an inquiry with decency and advantage. If the
Members of the Oppioition yielded on that occa-
sion to this suggestion, it was not to be expected
that the proposal now made for pursuing the pro-
mised inquiry should be rejected upon the grounds
of its nut bring cmisiptelit with strict precedent.
Suppose the Ministers of the Crown had now dr-
mended a Civil Li*t of 5,000,0001. instead of
1,050,0001. would those Members of the !louse
of Commons who might demand to examine the
estimates on which the proposed augmentation was
founded, be satisfactorily answe►ed by being told
that the Civil I.ivt of ANNE, •r of GEORGE I. 11.
or 111. had been voted without a previous minute
inquiry ? If such an objection be supposed to have
any weight, well did Lord JOHN RUSSELL remark.
that it was but an idle form to submit the question
to the House of Commons, where there existed no
power of examination or of refii-al, and the Minis-
ten might at once have inserted in the Gazelle the
amount required by his MAJESTY for defiaying the
expenses of his household, and of so much of the
civil government as still remains charged upon the
Civil List.

The Ministers also contend that the inquiry
suggested by the Opposiiion would be inconsistent
with the respect due to the KING'S majesty. No-
thing could be more inconsistent than that such an
objection should fall from the present Ministers of
the Crown, who never hesitistrd to submit the ex•
penditure of the Civil List to the investigation of a
Committee whenever they required an augmen-
tation of the funds for supporting it. There are
precedents to warrant such an examination, parti-
cularly that of the inquiry conducted under the
auspices of Mr. BURKE, whose respect for royalty
no man in the present day will venture to dispute,
but who felt that a system of wasteful and idle ex.
travagance could contribute neither to the dignity
of the Crown nor to the personal comforts of the
Sovereign. Nor was the royal dignity thought
to be compromised when, on a late occasion, the
particulars of the Windsor Establishment were sub-
jected to a strict and rigorous inquiry.

The Ministers seem to assume some credit to
themselves because the Civil List now proposed
is less than the arrangement of 1816, by the sum
of 139,0001. being the animism of the Windsor
Establishment. the Establishment of the late
QUEEN, and the Privy Purse of the Panics Ili:.
GENT Bat what merit is it of theirs that nue
King and one Court should he less expensive than
two Kings and three Courts uud when the pur-
poses for which several sums of money were assign-
ed had ceased to exist, why should the grants be
unnecessarily coutinued ? There remains, how-
ever, for the personal expromes of the Sovereign
and the general purposes id• the Civil List, pee-