The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-24 00:00:00

I sib'e for any ingenuity less than that of the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman himself to furnish—arguments better alapted to show
the advantages of his proposition than those urged by the
Right Hon. Gentleman in support of his own. But before
he proceeded to make any remarks on the main portion of the
speech of the Right Hon. Gentleman, or in support of the
amendment which he should move to the House, unless soate
arrangement should render it unnecessary, he thought it enter
to address himself to a few of the minor topics which formed a
part of the Right lion. Gentleman's speech. If tac ceoci.l
admissions which the Right Hon. Gentleman had made to-
night had been thrown out at any popular meeting, composed
of active and fretful demagogues heated by itillarnmatory
statements—if at such a meeting it had been stated as a fact,
speekin' as others did of that strict economy, of that pecu-
liar exactitude of all the moral observances which characte-
rised the long reign of George the Third —if it had been
said that from one source alone, front some obscure and irre-
sponsible source, the enormous amount of 12,003.000/. hard
been received, he who ventured on such an essertion would
have been rebuked fur the vielenee of his opiniens and his
shameful di-,regard of tr.se h. It appeared, however, that the
1'1,000,000/. had been in various ways reduced down to
5,000, 0004 ; but still when lie called to utiled what large
claims were made on the patriotic feelings and gratitude of
the nation for that high example of rigid virtue which they
had to contemplate in the arrangement that was distinguished
by Royal forbearance—when they found that the enormous
sum of five millions of money was thus obtained ; and thus
srpandered, no account even being tendered of it, he feared
he should have been open to many ungenerous imputations
for observations which he might have made. When they were
told of the concession her Majesty bad been advised to make,
and in speaking of her Mejesty he desired to be understood as
speaking of her with the respect which was due to her from
her loyal and aireetionate subjects—but when told of those con-
cessions they must deal with them. as they appeared before
them. If the droits of 'the Crown and the Admiralty, and
the Four-and-a-Half per Cents., and the other customary
duties had been surrendered. some twenty-five years ago,
they would have been in a condition to boast some substan-
tial profit from the surrender.—( Hear.) But there was great
cunning in Royalty ; it would never forego any thin; so
long as its fangs could cling to it. lie did not well understand
the nature of this, great boon they were to receive, and for
,which they were about to give what would seem to be an
inadequate exchange. There was a motion complied with
last night, which was brought forward by the Hon. Baronet
the Member for the University of Oxford, having for its pur-
pose to show that the Crown was a great loser by the re-
linquishment of the hereditary revenues. They were, it
appeared, actually to have a balance-sheet in illustration
of that defalcation. He was quite anxious to see it; it
would be quite a curiosity, for it would be the ft, st proof
that had been given of Royal liberality. But without spe-
culating as to the nature of that return, who could say that
the House and the people would be in a condition rightly to
appreciate it? It was a great pity that the statement was
not made when the public might still mere strongly have
expressed its sense of the great concessions presented to
them. Let them look to it. It was true that the terra •
tonal revenues at the disposal of the Crown in past time
were abundantly large, not only for the purposes of sustain-
ing the royal dignity in the most expensive splendour and
without restraint, but they also supplied resources sufficient
to carry out our armies over the continent of Europe, and to
give vigour and triumphs to our fleets over every sea.
Whence was it that while all other property had swelled to
such enormous amount, the revenue of the Crown had
diminished down to the shadow that they now saw it ? Louk
at the present amount of it which was under the control of the
Woods and Forests. Of what did it consist? That there
were considerable estates, ground rents, and numerous manors
still under the management of the Board of Woods and
Forests was not to be denied. Till lately, however, such
was the dexterity of the management of the Board, that the
balance-sheet had been adverse to the public interest. But
thanks to the vigilance of Parliament, about 40.000/. or
50,000/. per annum was now brought into the account. This,
then, was the only solid advantage they derived from that
concession for which they were invited to be so sincerely
grateful But then they were told of the droits of the
Admiralty. If the Government were not unfortunately
connected with a Noble Lord eh sse vigorous policy enabled
him to steer the vessel of the State through the continually-
arising difficulties of an expensive peace—if it was not for
this it might happen that they would not have to sustain
in a period of peace all the expenses without being able
to boast any of the glories of a war.—( A laugh.) Were it
not for the policy of the Nut.le Lord, the droits of the Ad-
miralty might swell to a frightful extent ; and then, looking at
the anxiety of the public to settle the Civil List, they might
have some appeal to their benevolence, calling on them not
to take all, reminding them that her Majesty, ought to take a
share : in short, that, like the cat and the monkey, they
should divide the droits between them.--( A laugh.") Let
them look at the concession as it stood. Was the House
prepared ? Yes, he saw that a large portion of it
was ; but were the 158 young Members amongst them,
who were just entering on their Legislative apprenticeship,
were they prepared to hear that for yeats past the amount of
those droits thus surrendered by the Queen through the elo-
quent mouth of the Chancellor of the Exchequer—( Laughter)
—was 1,2181. ?—(A laugh.) Yes, let it be told to all the
Courts of Europe that were studying our example in the
course of legisletion, that 1,2181. was the amount of the con-
ceded droits. Her Majesty bad surrendered to the nation the
Four-and-a-half per Cents. What were these Four-and-a-
half per Cents. ? Some young Members might imagine that
her Majesty had surrendered the Four-and-a-half per Cents.
in Threadneedle-street.—( Laughter.) That, indeed, would
be something to talk about.—(Laughter.) That, indeed,
would be something to call forth their gratitude.—( Laughter.)
It was, however, no such thing. It was simply this. Some
150 years ago the West India islands had been called upon to
raise amongst themselves she means of maintaining their in-
ternal government in the erection of houses for the adminis-
tration of justice, and ether appendages of authority. This
was proposed to be done by fixing a 4i per cent. tax upon
objects of native growth. But in the progress of time it was
thought fit that these colonial possessions, which had always
been under heavy obligations to the maternal control, should
send home from time to time the Four-and-a-half per
Cents. It was not to be paid in money ; for these colo-
nies were too poor to pay in money, and they therefore
paid in kind. The consequence was, that where the
island produced sugar, if it produced one hundred hogsheads
of sugar the Government was to have four and a half hogs-
heads of sugar ; and where it produced one hundred puncheons
of rum they were to have four and a half puncheons of rum.
Eventually it turned out that as the islands grew in importance
so did their resources magnify and the remittances increase,
and eventually it happened that there was something like a
surplus. He wished lion. Gentlemen to understand that he
was not speaking of a clerical surplus; at present he was con-
fining his attention to mere matters of revenue.—( Laughter.)
There was a surplus, and it might have been expected that it
would have been applied to the relief of the Colonies--that
there might, for instance, have been a reduction of the exac-
tion. 'There was a surplus, and the happy thought suggested
itself—he wished he could congratulate the present Chancellor
of the Exchequer upon the good luck of being its author—but
the moment there was a surplus, the happy thought suggested
itself of charging the surplus with the pensions and annuities of
that superfluous portion of the Aristocracy who were to be
found, but not recognised, at home; and the consequence was,
that year after year the per Cents. were thus loaded with
demands, until at length it turned out that there was an aug,-
meatation of demands upon it, with the source from which
they might be supplied declining. The claims, he believed,
exceeded the remittances. The result of the whole remit-
tances he believed to be this —he was then speaking front' re-
collection and was not to be supposed as resting his foundation
upon the dry figures of a Chancellor of the Exchequer—he
was not to be understood as speaking of the exact total, but of
something like the total, and he believed lie was correct in
saying that the Four-and-a- Half per Cents. at that hour, and
never before then, had amounted to 5,000/. a-year. lie thought
he should be very near the tnalk if he said 2,0001. It was
then desirable for that House, and still more, it was desirable
to the country, it was desirable to the people, the people who
cheered her Majesty and her Majesty's Ministers—( Laughter)
—it was of the utmost importance that none of their virtues,
that none of their merits should be lost to those Ministers ;
that, whenever they went forth with her Majesty into the
streets and upon the highways, the people should take off
their hats, and cheer for those very Ministers who had obtained
for them such immense concessions from the Crown at the be-
ginning of the new reign—( Laughter)—that, too, the people
might say of them, " those are the Ministers who, although
they have given a Civil List amounting to 510,0004, yet have,
by their judicious system of economy, contrived to balance
the account by various concessions from the Crown."—
( Laughter.) Having, then, placed the House in possession of
the real facts as regarded these matters, he wished to know in
what way the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall were to be
brought under the cognizance of the House. This point had
been dismissed bra very brief manner by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer; so briefly, that while he was going into
the lobby and returning from it this very important point
had been disposed of. This was a very grave matter, and
the House would consider—for he was sure they were laud-
ably inclined to execute this portion of their duty when
disposing of the Civil List—he was sure they would- agree
with him in thinking that it would be very desirable that
time should be given for them to understand the nature of
those properties. Were they to let it go forth to the public
that the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall were under the
cognizance of Parliament, with the notion of deriving advan-
tage from the concession, when, in reality, there was none ?
The Rights Hon. Gentleman had protested against a multi-
plicity of objects being thrown upon the Committee. Ile
(Mr. Harvey) did not know that the properties of the
Duchies were to be inquired into by -the Committee.
He apprehended not ; for if it were, no justice could be
done to the subject. He, on the contrary, considered that a
Committee ought to be exclusively appointed for tho purpose
of inquiring into the nature, extent, and application of the
properties belonging to the duels*, Why he believed the
properties to be enortuons io their annual amount. He was
ready to admit thet 4e.liad not sufficient information upon the
41.1iect ;0 justify tlte, statement he was about to make, but
what 40 aeserted he gathered from the statements of lion.
Gentlemen wile had to on part in these matters in by-gone
times, He thought he could without exaggeration state the
amount; at all events, it was in the power of the Governsaent
to vindicate those resources from any statements sLat. might be
erroneous. He believed that the pecreesiies of the duchies of
Cornwall and Lancaster, ;,f t`stey eaerltecame the property of a
Gentleman of that Wow, and who should be, luckily for itisn-
Of, celled to the Viiper House, with the title of ileke of Lan-
caster, alongss*h his proper \Wks titho—if there should
ever be any. such peeenn, 4 voight, with the Duchies of Lan-
-11.5.h-eV and. OcienWall; congratulate himself upon possessing a
clear Income of 100,000/. a year. That would not be the