The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-13 00:00:00

BILL.

On the motion of Sir B. PEEL, the House resolved
itself into a Committee on the Protection of her Majesty's
Person Bill.
Mr. HUME said before the Speaker left the chair, he
wished to remind the Eight Hon. Baronet that the
attention of the House had been for several months
directed to the distress of the country, but that
no attention had as yet been directed to that
portion of her Majesty's speech which related to the
state of the finances and expenditure of the country as a
means of removing that distress. The attention of the
House, ought to have been given to a reduction of the

expenditu-re in the first -place. The distress gave
every indication of continuing, and he thought
the House ought not to separate without the
whole expenditure of the country having undergone
a review. He did not object to the personal allowance
other Majesty, but of the enormous expense of the Lord
Chamberlains' and the Lord Stewards' departments, and
that of the Master of the Horse. Ministers should ad-
vise her Majesty to do away with half this parade
and show ; and from all he knew of her Majesly, he
believed she would be pleased to make such a reduction.
What he called on the House to express an opinion on
was, that some sacrifice should be made by the public
servants of the Crown, for two or three years, until the
expenses of the war in China should have been liquidated.
Amongst the extravagaut acts of the late Government,
which added to the difficulties of the Right Hon.
Baronet, was the creation of a pension list for
merits, to the amount of 4,0401. Of this
there was a charge of 650/. for schoolmasters and
teachers. He repeated that he did not blame the Right
Hon. Baronet ; and for that unwarrantable addition to the

public debt, it was the act of the late Government. There
was the German teacher of her Majesty whilst Princess
Victoria, with a pension of 1001. A teacher of writing
100/. , a teacher of music, 100/. ; a teacher of French,
WO/. ; a teacher of Italian, 100/. ; a teacher of singing,
• Too/. ; a teacher of dancing, 50/. ; in all, 6501., which
threw upon the nation a debt of 20,0001. He thought it was
the duty of the Right Hon. Baronet to make:the proposal
to the public servants of the Crown to make the sacrifice
of a part of their salaries for two or three years. He
could not sit down without saying that the House at pre-
sent had no check whatever on the miscellaneous esti-
mates. There ought to be at the commencement of
every session a Committee to examine them before they
were proposed to the House, as was the case in every
country where there is a representative Government.
He hoped the Right Hon. Baronet would not allow any
estimate to be voted until a Committee had examined
each of the details. He therefore hoped that his sug-
gestion would not be lost on the Right Hon. Baronet,
but that he would acvise her Majesty to make a reduc-
tion in all those expeditions, and set an example to every
other department, so as to render the continuance of the
income-tax unnecessary past the present year.
Sir R. PEEL said, that he was quite sure the Hon.
Gentleman did not desire to throw any opposition in the
way of their going into a Committee of Supply.—
(Laughter.) But what were the sources of expenditure?
The expenses of the navy were 17,800,000/. ; and at
present the expenses of the Ordnance, &c., amounted
to 15,000,0001. But the House was competent to judge
of these matters, as her Majesty's Government. And
when there was an impression on the part of the House
or the country, that the estimates were extravagant,
they could be reduced. But when they looked
to other coutries, and saw the forces they
maintained, he did not think it would be advi-
sable, on their part, to make any reduction at present.
The vote for the Caledonian canal he had objected to
last year. It would now increase the estimates by
25,000/. With respect to the votes necessary for carry-
ing on the war in which we were n3w engaged, he
must say that it was not true economy to stint
the public service on that score. The better
policy was to endeavour to bring the war
to a close, but in acting upon that policy it
was necessary, to take 400,000/. additional this
year. But on the whole on the votes of this year as
compared with those of last year there was a saving of
84,000/. He regretted that the Hon. Gentleman had
referred to the appropriation of the limited fund placed
at her Majesty's disposal for reward of public services.
The sum thus appropriated was only 1,200/. a-year, and
the services rewarded from that limited funds were those
of persons who derived their claims from literary or
scientific pursuits, or from service rendered to the

person of the Queen. Those were the cases in which
pensions were granted on the advice of the Crown.
He hoped the Hon. Gentleman would not object to allow
the Bill to go into Committee. The Hon. Geeticinan
had alluded to a Committee of Supply. Now, with re-
spect to that, ho had doubts wnether the Treasury
was not more economical than the House of Commons or
a Committee of Supply. He trusted the House would
proceed with the Bill, which had been read a first and
second time yesterday, and which stood for committal
to day. - .

Sir R. INGLIS was astonished that the lion. Member
for Montrdse had taken such an opportunity to make
a tirade against the establishment of her Majesty.
Mr. HUME confessed that he had fallen into a mis-
take, or he should not have made the observations he
had done. He thought the motion was for going into.
Committee of Supply. There was no person in the
House who would be more happy to see her
Majesty protected.—(Hear, hear.) He had known
her Majesty as well as well as the Right Honourable
Baronet.—(Great laughter.) And he believed that, she
would not consider any proposition of the present Go-
vernment for the relief of her subjects as an impertinent
or improper interference with her comforts.

Mr: WILLIAMS was surprised to hear the imputa-
tions of the Hon. Baronet, the Member for the Uni-
versity of Oxford, against himself and his Hon. Friend,
the Member for Montrose. The Hon. Baronet seemed
willing to arrogate to himself an exclusive loyalty; but he
could tell the Hon. Baronet that if her Majesty's
person or throne were in danger he should be as willing
as the Hon. Baronet could be to defend them. •

Sir ROBERT PEEL deprecated any angry discussion
upon a subject in which they were all unanimous.—
(Hear.) It was manifestly the wish of every Member,
that every possible protection should be given to the
pers.ni of her Majesty. He was persuaded that the
Hon. Member for Montrose had taktn the course he had
pursued merely from a. misapprehension.
. Sir R. IL INGLIS said that he had no further obser-
vation to make upon the matter, as the Hon. Member
for Montrose had a2knowledged that he had fallen into
an error. He could assure the Hon. Member for Coven-
try that he did not wish to arrogate to himself any ex-
clusive loyalty.