Star.
London, England, 1816-06-07 00:00:00

CIVIL LIST.

The Earl of LIVERPOOL moved the second
reading of the Civil List, and in doing so he should
not conceive, he said, that be did his duty. unless he
stated generally the vowed* and objects of she 'Bill.
' The Civil List had will
been repeatedly brought!.
under the view of Parliament; and if this was done
oftener in the present than in any former reign, it
arose from the nature of the compact made with
Majesty on this subject at the commencement of his
reign. Their Lordships were aware that before the
Revolution, the expenses of Government were de.
frayed by the Crown out of certain hereditary reve-
nues. At the Revolution a great change took place
in this respect, as it was then thought proper to sepa.
rate the expenses of the Army and Navy from those
of the Civil Government, and to vote the Army and
Navy expenses annually under the controul of Parlia-
ment, leaving a certain revenue in the hands of the
Crown for the expenses of the Civil Government.—
Parliament, however, fixed a minimum, and if the
revenue fell short of £700,000, the deficiency was to
be made good by Parliament. In the reign of George
11. the minimum was increased to 4800,000. In
both cases, if the revenue produced more than these
sums, the advantage belonged to the Crown. But
his present Majesty stood in a different situation in this
respect from any former Sovereign, for the Public
took the hereditary revenues for its own advantage, and
fixed the maximum for the Crown first at 4800,000,
afterwards at £900,000. The difference was mate.
rial, as the revenues would have increased, and had
in fact increased in the hands of the public with the
increase of other revenues ; but of this advantage the
Crown had been deprived by the compact with his
present Majesty. The centequence necessarily was,
frequent applications to Parliament in • the course of,
a long reign, during which the Sovereign bad the
advantage of a numerous family, for it was obvious
that a fixed sum which would be sufficient in 1760,
was not sufficient in 1816. He did pot argue whe.
then the arrangement made at the commencemeat of
the present reign was or was not a wise one, but
only contended that the necessary effect was, that in
the course of a long reign these applications should be
made to Parliament. Having explained this, he
wished to observe also, that this was not a revenue
merely for the personal advantage of the Sovereign,
but likewise for the adeainistration of a great part of,
the Civil Government. Only 4409,080 went to
the expenses of the personal establishment of the So-
vereign—not more than one-third of the Civil List.—
' The personal expenses of the government were less
in this country than in others. The 25 milliohs of,
livres granted to the Sing of France were intended
entirely for the personal eetablishntentof the Sovereign.
Of our Civil List two-thirds went to the expenses of
the civil government. If they looked into the details
they would find that by far the greater propor-
tion of increase had takes place in that part of the
Civil List which went to the adofinistration of the-
. civil Government; and though debts had been in-
curred, not merely in that branch, but also in the
personal branch, their Lordships would consider that
a revenue settled 56 years ago, according to the
state of revenue and expenditure at that period, was
not likely to be sufficient during the subsequent
changes. The amount of debts paid , off by the
public, on account of - the Civil List, was not by any
means m large as the change of circumstances might
have justified. Then, refining to the arrangement
..Of 1811, he observed, that it had ban calcu acted at