The Sun.
London, England, 1802-03-30 00:00:00

row compass, and he had no doubt hat that the
Committee would concur in the Motion of his Right
Hon. Friend. . s

Mr. FOX wished to know whether the Right
Hon. Gentleman had taken into consideration all
the charges, which were then paid out of the
Civil List, and.which were not now paid out of it ?
Mr. PITT said, he had not taken either side into
his consideration : the ‘Duke of Cumberland was
paid in part out of the Consolidated,Fund : he had.
merely taken. the general estimate.
-Mr. TIERNEY said, he was disposed to give
great credit to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for
the very candid manner in which he had brought
forward this subjea, particularly in having the
Papers printed, ,which was rfeers done before in
cases of the. Civil List. He felt himself disposed
to make every allowance for the change of circum-
stances which had led to this increase of the Debt ;
but it appeared to him necessary, before .they voted
this sum, that' they .should inquire whether all the
same payments continued now to be paid out of the
Civil List that used to be paid out of that Fund.—
The Civil List had - been stated to amount to
900,0001. a-year ; but he contended, that besides
-the 900,0001. a-year settled. upon -His Majesty,
there were other sums which must be considered as
forming a part of the Civil List. In 'the first place,
the produce of the Four and a Half per Cent. Duties
ought to be added to it, because His Majesty en-
joyed those duties ; in the next place, all the sums
which were paid out of the Consolidated Food to
the different brandies of the Royal Family, must
be considered as so much.given in aid of the
Civil List. There appeared to be some dif-
ficulty in understanding the meaning of M.
Burke's 'Bill ; but the words appeared to him
'to be very distied. The Right Honourable Gen-
tleman. said, he had never tmderstood that Bill
in the sense now put upon it;, he was extremely
sorry that was-the case, for if the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman had acted otherwise, he would have saved the
Country this very great expence.—When His Royal
Highness the prince of Wales's affairs were under
consideration, that Right Hon. Gentleman stated,
that the best plan would be, to follow Mr.- Burke's
Bill, and a part of His Royal Highess's Revenue
Was appropriated' to pay his Debts. He trusted the
Committee would, in the present instance, follow
that example with regard to the Civil List. The
Right Hon. Gentleman seemed to think that there
were no articles in. the Account laid before the
House which deserad censure ; in this, however,
lie could by no means agree' with that. Right Hon.
Gentleman• Ar the close of- a long and expensive
War, the Country- was called upon to pay one Mil-
lion of Money.- This might:appear to the Right
Hon. Gentleman a trifling surn, but .to him it ap-
peared a very serious one, and the business was
brought forward 'in a way that appeared to him an
insult to Parliament.. He admitted, that cases
might exist io which it would be right to call upon
Parliament to pay off incumbrances on the Civil
List,*but what he complained' of .was, that- it was
suffered to increase to such an amount, instead of
acquainting Parliament of it almost from day to
day.' According to 'the present plan, we were call-
ed upon tom without the merit of being generous.
Among the many advantages which the. Civil List
had pined, there was One wiiich. arose from the
War, and that was, that.being at War with almost
every Stare in Etirope, the Civil List had made a
very great saving in the allowances to •Ambassih.
dors. Another saving arose from the East India Com-
pany having undertaken the expence of the Board
of Controul. Besides this, there was the Annuities
to the Princess Amelia and the Duke of Cumberland.
These considerations ought not to escape the atten-
tion of the Committee, because they very consi-
derably
,increased the Civil List. Another great
saving which the Civil-List: had' made during the
War, was in the article of Secret Service Money.
In all former Wars, there was no Secret Service
Money voted by Parliament, it was all paid out of
the. Civil List; but in the present War, Parliament'
had voted near 900,0001. for that service. With
regard to the Law Expellees, they.appeared to him
very enormous—the prosecutions were carried on in
the most expensive way ; in many of them there were
13 or i+Counsel employed, which certainly could
not be necessary. There was also a charge of
roB,oool. for presents to Foreign Ministers, which
he believed was without a precedent. The charge
which was made for Messengers appeared to him
enormous, particUlarly for Messengers at home,
where The estatilishment of-the Mail Coach in his
opinion rendered the employment of Messengers, on
common oCeasions, unnecessary. He did not mean
to go at length into all theseitems, he wished that
some further time should be given to consider them,
he was willing to refer it for examination again to the
same Committee, and he was sure they would say,
that there were many of these articles that ought
not to be paid. He begged pardon for trespassing
upon the Committee so long, but as he really wished
that this subjea should be re-considered, he should
move that the Chairman should report progress,
and ask leave to sit again.
Mr. ROSE went through a variety of Items re-
spetting the Civil List, as well as: on the state of
the Pensions. He commented very largely on the
comparative state .of the Civil List between the
Reign
.of George 11. and His present Majesty, and
concluded from this comparison, that the expendi-
ture had been, in point of economy, in favour of the
present Reign. He observed, that no individual
interest had been preferred to the Public Welfare,
and that in all the appointments to Foreign Offices,
the strictest selection in respect to ability, and the
utmost attention to charaaer, had been observed.
•Mr. TIERNEY 'explained.