The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-29 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL, Aug. 27.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of his
Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
The Queen went out accompanied by the Royal
family.

CHARGES ON THE CONSOLIDA2ED
FUND.

In the national balance-sheet there appears
always an item of above £1,800,000 for ordinary
charges on the Consolidated Fund, consisting of
payments made by authority of Acts of Parliament,
and without being annually discussed and voted in
the House of Commons. The recent issue of the
yearly finance accounts presents an opportunity for
giving some account of this part of the fixed public
expenditure. First comes her Majesty's civil list,
£385,000, with which is classed the charge of about
£22,000 a year for pensions, being (we presume)
the pensions granted at the rate of £1,200 a year
for meritorious services. Next come the annuities
to the Royal family, now £lll,OOO a year. Them
follow pensions amounting to £42,360 a year, Pay'
able to persons of distinction for naval and military
services. In these are included the £4,000 a year
payable to the present and next Duke of Welling-
ton, and seven perpetual pensions, £19,000 a year
in all, payable to the present and future Duke of
Marlborough, Earls Nelson, Amherst, and Bath,
Viscount Exmouth, Lord Rodney, and the heirs of
the Duke of Schoenberg. Next come pensions for
civil services, £21,372, including the pension of
£4,000 a year to the heirs of William Penn for ever.
Under this head are included the pensions for ser-
vice in the high civil departments of the State. Four
of the first class of these pensions, at £2,000 a year,
are allowed to past Cabinet Ministers, but when the
finance accounts were made up in March, only two
of these pensions were payable, one to Sir G. Grey
and one to Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. Walpole's being
marked " suspended," owing to his being in office
again. Pensions for judicial services follow, amount-
ing to £48,200 a year. Among these are four
pensions of £5,000 a year each to the four ex"
Chancellors, pensions of £3,500 to six ex-judges of
the superior courts of law, a pension to a retired
Vice-Chancellor, and pensions of £BOO to four
retired County Court judges. There are also pen-
sions, amounting to £34,860 for civil and judicial
services in Ireland, including pensions to two ex'
Chancellors, to three ex-judges, £4,200 a year
to Viscount Avonmore, as late principal
registrar of the Court of Chancery, and £2,968
to the Earl of Roden, as late Auditor-General
of the Exchequer in Ireland. A charge fol-
lows of £30,523 for miscellaneous pensions, includ-
ing some still payable to servants of Queen Charlotte
to the housemaid of the Irish House of Lords, and
_to persons who suffered by the rebellion in 1798.
Next comes a very miscellaneous list of salaries and
allowances amounting to £143,488. It includes
the Speaker's salary of £5,000 a year, that of the
Sergeant-at-Arms, £1,200 ; augmentation of sti-
pends to Scotch clergy, £17,040 a year; the eccle-
siastical establishment in the West Indies, £20,300;
the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, £20,000 ; Ma)"
nooth College, £26,300 ; the Queen's colleges,
£21,000 ; and a number of other annual payments,
great and small, coming down to £B3 a year to the
Right lion. W. Beresford, as keeper of the tennis-
court. Next follows the charge for the diplomatic
service, limited by Act of Parliament to £lBO,OOO a
year, of which sum £26,898 is applied in pensions,
and the rest in salaries and allowances for active,
service. But this charge on the consolidated luau
is aided by a vote in t, supply " of above £30,000
a yerr for extraordinary expenses. Of the charge
on the consolidated fund the embassy in France 513-
sorbs £13,092 ; those in Turkey Russia, and Auiv
tria nearly £ll,OOO each ; Prussia, £9,386 ; tie
United States, £7,044 ; Spain, £6,450 ;
£7,150. The next item is a very large one of
£673,828 for judicial salaries and compensationS•
acre are included the salaries of the Lord Chancel'
lor, the two Lords Justices, the Master of the Rolls,
and the three Vice-Chancellors, £39,000 a year la
all ; the 15 judges of the superior courts of commell,
law and the judge of the Probate Court, £87,000 a
year ; the 23 London police magistrates, £28,000 3
year; the judges of the English County Courta,
£93,000 a year; the Scotch and Irish judges, and
the Irish chairmen of Quarter Sessions, cornpens3;
tions payable to proctors and persons filling office,
now abolished amount to £148,701 a year; there
the pension of Lord Elleuborough as chief clerk of
the Court of Queen's Bench, £7,700, and that ()f
~.
the Rev. T. Thurlow as keeper and clerk a
Hanaper (Chancery), £4,028 a year, besides 111:
£7,352 a year as patentee of bankrupts. Last cora;
some miscellaneous payments, amounting to
£158,000, the chief being the liabilities in respect
of the Russian-Dutch loan and the Greek loan'
This completes the list of the payments, togethe.,
about £1,850,000, which are the ordinary charges
upon the Consolidated Fund, placed permanently
upon this fund by Act of Parliament ; there are,
some which, if dependent upon annual vote, might
have a hard time of it.