The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-22 00:00:00

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LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22 1837.

In the HOUSE of LORDS yesterday the Prisoners in Ireland
Conveyance Bill, and also the Houses of Parliament Biil,
wee severally athanced a stage.
Among the petitions presented was one for better medical
attendance in workhouses; and another complaining of the in-
jus:ice and inexpediency of Imprisonment for Debt.
Lord BROUGIIANI did not persist uselessly in pressing for the
production of the accounts of the revenues received by the
Crown from the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. He was
sath,fied that the Government would not produce them, and he
did not desire to waste the evening in a debate that would be
unattended with any result. The Noble and Learned Lord
vindicated himself, with much felicity of manner, from the idle
charge whieli some soi-disaht dibblers in Court jargon had
brought against his loyalty. The crime he had committed,
and to which he pleaded guilty, was in thinking and declaring
that " the infznenation ought to have been produced before
their Lordships had been called upon to vote so many hundred
thousands a year for the Civil List, without knowing what the
actual revenue of the Crown was. He ( Lot d Brougham)
had imagincd that the papers possessing infermation, as they
would, might prove useful before the consideration of the
Civil List Bill was gone into, but it was thought far better,
it would appear, to vote the money first, and then state the
facts afterwards."

an income equal in amount to that enjoyed by GEORGE IV.
and WILLIAM IV. We showed that it had been the
uniform practice of this country to provide munifi-
cently for the maintenance of the Royal dignity—Parlia-
ment being ever ready to augment its grants, whenever
Ministerswere prepared to state that such augmentation was
required for the comfort of the Sovereign and the splendour
of the Crown; and we respectfully submitted to Ministers that
the virgin state, and consequently limited personal expenditure
of the QUEEN ought to have had more weight with the
framers of the Civil List ; especially as they were not pre-
pared to pledge the Royal word that in the event of her
Majesty's marriage, and the consequent happy increase of
the Royal Family, no additional grant would be required to
be voted by her MAJESTY'S faithful Commons. We have
further to observe—and we do so with great respect--
that if anything be calculated to counteract the salutary
influence of that excellent education which our young and
amiable QUEEN has received under the direction of her re-
vered and exemplary mother, the Duches;of KENT—if any-
thing can have a tendency to divert for a moment the thoughts
of a Sovereign of such happy promise, from the true inte-
rests of the people—if anything can add to the dangers
that lurk within the precincts of a court where the Sovereign
is young, artless, interesting, and confiding ; it is the granting
of a Civil List by Ministers which invites the extravagance
of Court Parasites, and exposes the generous feelings of
her MAJESTY to solicitations and councils unworthy of the
ear of a Queen of ENGLAND.
Lord BROUGHAM, in his protest, complains that full in-
formation on the subject of the actual revenues derived by
the Crown from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall
was not laid before Parliament previous to the bringing in
of the Civil List Bill. The country will participate in his'
Lordship's indignant feelings upon the question of these
Duchies ; and Ministers will yet learn that in refusing to
place these branches of Royal income under the control of
Parliament they sowed the first seeds of a suspicion
which is taking root in the public mind—namely,
that her MAJESTY has been too strongly imbued with the
Elizabethan principle of attachment to the full stretch of
Royal prerogative. It was surely not the way to place the
SOVEREIGN in the most amiable light before the_ country,
for Lord JOHN RUSSEI.L to state in the House of Com-
mons, and Lord MELBOURNE in the House of Peers, that
the question of giving up the revenue' of the Duchies of
Cornwall and Lancaster had been mooted in the Council,
and that the QUEEN had herself refused to part with them.
Her MAJESTY is not to be supposed to have taken such a
step of her own mere motion ; and the conduct of Ministers
in closing the mouths of their opponents, by leaving the
contrary to be inferred, is proof positive that they were
unable to defend the longer retension of these revenues by
the Crown. The voting of the Civil List, under such cir-
cumstances, is a voting away in the dark of the taxes of
the country. This is so well put in the following extract
from Lord BROUGHAM'S speech on Wednesday evening,
when praying the Government to delay the second reading
of the Civil List Bill, that our readers will thank us for
directing their attention to it :
" He prayed their Lordships to remember how entirely in the
dark they were as to the present revenue they were about t:,
give to the Sovereign. The question was, how. much it would
be fit to confer on the Sovereign by way of revenue for the
expense of maintaining the dignity of the Crown ? Could any-
thing be more unknown? They must, before answering it,
know how much the Crown already possessed. The question
was, what is necessary, not to give a niggardly, but an amply
sufficient provision, yet not wholly beyond the necessity of the
case ? All he knew, all
,he had a right to know, was this
—that his Noble Friend said, not that 395,0001.. a-year was
necessary for the present Sovereign, 385,000/. having been
found all that was necessary for William IV. and George IV.
—not merely that an addition of 10,0001. must be made fur
maintaining the dignity of her present Majesty, but that in
addition to v.,hat her Majesty had without Parliament—with-
out the interference of Parliament at least—it was ne-
cessary to vote this 395,0001.: that was the proposition
The Crown was already possessed of certain revenues with
which Parliament did not intermeddl-, and they were called
on to sly how much in addition to those foods was ne-
cessary in order that a sum total might be obtained suffi-
cient for maintaining the dignity of the Crown. How
could that question be answered without first knowing the
amount of those funds which at present, without this grant,
were in possession of the Crown ? He might sly that
without any other funds 395,000/. would be enough, but
that was not the proposition. Besides the unkown amcunt,
which might perhaps be estimated at from 10.000/. to 20,000/.
or 30,000/. ps r annum, they were called on to say that the
dignity of the Crown required 395,0001. additional. 'navy
were doubly in the dark as to the future necessities of the
Crown, and as to the present resources of the Crown. He
should like to see any man come forward and show the confi-
dence to argue a proposition so monstrous as that those reve-
nues were private funds and not public property enjoyed by the
Sovereign in right of the Crown. They were totally in the
dark respecting them. The debate on the production of the
returns did not come on till to-morrow, and yet they were now
called on, in the dark, to vote this large sum."
Parliament has not only voted the Civil List Bill in the
dark ,as regards both the wants and the resources of the Crown,
but it has voted a Civil List higher than was ever granted—
all the circumstances considered—at any former period.
By reference to a Table of the comparative amount of the
Civil List in 1786 and 1837-8, published in another co-
lumn, it will be seen that the sum expended in tradesmens,
bills alone in the former period, would have been adequate
to the maintenance of 10,064 agricultural labourers' fami-
lies ; whereas the sum granted to the QUEEN for a
like purpose would support, at the present rate of wages
in agricultural districts, 14,600 agricultural labourers'
families ! Now this disproportion—when we look to the
hundreds of thousands of families in this country in a state
of the most deplorable destitution—is really shameful.
With thousands of hand-loom weavers crying out for
bread, and in the face of the repeated declarations of
Ministers that no relief can be extended to them—
that the country cannot afford them assistance—it does
strike us as shameful to hold out the strongest inducement
than can ,be offered to encourage the extravagance of , a
Court never noted for its frugality, or even its disposition
to live within its resources, however ample. But though
Ministers have succeeded in taking an advantage of the
people, of which we must be allowed to complain, we have
the fullest confidence that when the facts are known—as they
must soon be—to her MAJESTY, that such concessions will
be made to Parliament as shall consist with the dignity of
the Crown, and the welfare of a loyal and confiding people.
Whatever course Ministers may adopt—whatever screen
they may seek to throw over the secret resources of the
Crown, in order to blind the House of Commons—we feel
assured that Queen VICTORIA will not hesitate to depend
for the maintenance of her Royal state and dignity upon
the generous liberality of her loyal subjects.

The Civil List Bill went through a Committee, and was
ordered to be read a third time this day.
The Earl of RanNoa then brought forward, in a speech of
considerable ability, the motion of which he had given notice,
for an inquiry into, with a view to reform. the Universities of
Oxford and CambriOgc. The Noble Earl, in moving for
copies of the protests mach by Dr. HAMPDEN to the Vice-
Chancellor of Oxford University, argued that the authority
of the Crown itself had been trampled under feet by the col-
legiate proceedings taken against that learned and pious
divine. After some discussion, for the report of which we
refer to the debate, the motion was withdrawn.
Lord BROUGHAM said he should like to know when the
West India returns would be placed on the table ? Lord
GLENELG—Here they are.—( A laugh.) The returns were
then laid upon the table, and the House adjourned.
The HousE of CostmoNs was engaged a great part of the
sitting with Election Petitions.
Colonel SIBTHORP having broadly enough insinuated that
her Majesty's Ministers did not make a House yesterday only
because they wished to evade the discussiou of the Duchess
of Kent's allowance, and to get rid of the motion of the Hon.
Member for Lincoln, Lord JOHN RUSSELL assured hint that
whenever he thought proper to bring forward his motion, her
Majesty's Ministers, Members of that House, were quite ready
to meet it, adding, ,6 I was down here yesterday before four
o'clock ; the Chancellor of the Exchequer' was with me, and
we were disappointed to find that a House could not be
made." The Gallant Colonel rejoined, "If you wished to
make a House you would have been down here at three
o'clock." _ _

FEILDEN brought before the House the long-continued
privation and dreadful distress suffered by the hand-loom
weavers. The Hon. Gentleman concluded his arguments,
and the heart-rending narrative which elicited them, by moving
a resolution, the conclusions of which were, " that it was the
interest as well as the duty of the representatives of the people
in' that House to inquire into, and to establish laws, either to
raise the amount of the wages of the hand-loom weavers to a
scale adequate to maintain them in comfort, or to cause a re-
duction of the taxes on the necessaries of life, and that no
portion of their wages should be abstracted from them either
by direct or indirect taxation." For the words of the motion,
and the debate which ensued, we refer to our report; it can-
not fail to arrest attention. The motion was of course lost-
-11 only voting for, and 62 against it.
On the motion for the House going into Committee on the
Duchess of Kent's Annuity Bill, Colonel SIIITHORP declared,
amidst reiterated ironical cheers, that "he was not to be pre-
vented by a packed crew on the opposite side from discharging
his duty to the public. That crew wanted to purchase her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent ; but she was not to
be purchased." The House then went into Committee on
the Bill.

Colonel SIBTITORP again protested against the course
which her Nlajesty's Government had adopted with regard to
this grant, and moved that the sum of 22,000/. be inserted
instead of 30,000/. in the clause. On a division the Gallant
Colonel's motion was negatived, and the original clause
carried. He afterwards gave notice that he should, shortly
after the recess,!move to repeal so much of the 26th of Geo.
111., chap. 24, as granted an annuity of 50,0001. to Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.
The House adjourned at twelve o'clock.

We quote in our First Page—from a Second Edition of
the Times—very important news from Lower Canada, to
which we direct the attention of our readers.

Lord RADNOR brought forward the question of the Uni-
versity statutes last night in the House of Lords, in a calm,
lucid, and convincing speech, in which he exposed the utter
inutility of many of these statutes, which, however suitable
they may have been at the time when they were passed,
are ill-calculated for days like the present. Nowhere, in.
deed, is Reform so necessary as at our two Universities,
Oxford and Cambridge. They are places of refuge for
bigotry and intolerance, which, driven from every other
quarter by the increased intelligence of the age, are
there glare to find shelter, a place at the Fellows
table, and the snuggest seat in the Combination-room.
The Noble Lord commenced his speech by observing, that
" some time back when he brought forward the question of
the statutes and bye-laws of the Universities, he was as-
sured that they were about to undergo a thorough revision
by the authorities ; and as he was now informed, these
authorities had, in point of fact, made some enquiry into
the matter, but hitherto with the most trifling and un-
important results, though they had the whole of the long
vacation to work in. The sum total of the improve-
ments made by the heads of houses hitherto was most
paltry and ridiculous. In fact, the only alteration worthy
of mention,
rb was
ed a
bywhich the oath taken at matricu-
lation with. The other ones had been aptly
dc
better than an affectation of
es idone
swas
s a that
wa y
nothing
doing something, while in reality nothing was done,
or intended to be done." This is an admirable sample
of the way in which the Tories set about the task
of Reform. They promise prodigious improvements ;
they effect few or none. If you estimate them by
their sayings, they are the most disinterested of patriots ;
if you test them by their doings, they are the most inve-
terate of bigots. They are the aptest possible disciples of
the great-cry-and-little-wool-school ; and are reflected, as in
a mirror, by the authorities of Oxford with the most'
striking fidelity. We hope that the Earl of RADNOR,
despite the opposition of the Duke of WELLINGTON and
the other Tories in the House of Peers, will follow up the
question of University Reform, and " not allow it to
slumber, for it is one of great importance and involves
momentous results.

Lord BROUGHAM has entered upon the Lords' Journals
a most able and unanswerable protest against the passing,
in its present form, of the Civil List Bill. Of this pro-
test a copy will be found in another column, to which the
attention of every honest Reformer—of every British sub-
ject, whose political conduct is influenced by a love for his
country—is especially directed. The precipitation of
Ministers in hurrying on this Bill—their anxiety,
.as it
were, to take advantage of the tide of popular loyalty, now
flowing so strongly in their favour—cannot escape the ob-
servation of the more sober-minded among the people of
England, and, we are confident, will be remembered here-
after to their detriment, both as guardians of the public
purse, and leaders of the liberal party in Parliament. We
quite agree with Lord BROUGHAM—and we have prece-
dents in abundance to verify the fact—that the " Civil
List arrangement is only held binding upon one of the
parties to it, namely, the country being always de-
parted from as often as it is found inconvenient for the
Crown, and uniformly employed to preclude all revision
of its principles or details as often as these are found
disadvantageous for the country." If the Civil List be too
large the country will never hear a syllable about it—not a
penny of the surplus will ever find its way into the coffers
of the State, with a view to enable the Government to re-
duce the taxes ; but should it be found insufficient for the
maintenance of any system of prodigality encouraged by
the Court, Ministers will not hesitate to call upon Parlia-
ment for a grant adequate to the deficiency. The coun-
try is only certain of one thing, namely, that it must suffer
by every subsequent revision of the Civil List. The bar-
gain is a one-sided—or rather all the advantages are secured
to the Crown, and all the penalties thrown upon the people.
It was for this reason that we repudiated, on Monday last,
the doctrine of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, that it would be un-
fair towards her MAJESTY not to place at her Royal disposal

One of the greatest advantages arising from the conti-
nuance in office of a Liberal Government is the gradual

VIE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1837