The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-01-08
vIC's INCOME.
A Chapter Coneernina ihe Royal
Sponduiix.

From the Liverpool Mercury, December III
So much nonsense Is constantly talked,
and such erroneeus notions are held, re-
specting the Qaeen's income, that it can
hardly be considered a work of supere-
CATION to put the precise facts before
the public. By an act passed soon after
her Majesty's accession, in which the
Queen valves her right to and interest
ia certain hereditary rates, charges, du-
ties and revenues which by her prerog-
ative she might have claimed, the civil
list !. G. her income, is fixed at f3S5, 900
per annum. Many have an idea that
this sum is actually paid to the Queen
every year. Such is not the case. The
civil list is divided into six classes, to
each of which We will briefly refer.
Glass really represents the amount of
money paid to her Majesty for her .pri-
vate use. This amount is f6O, 600, which
is payable in monthly instalments so
long as her Majesty lives. Class 2,
which appropriates f13l ,260, is for the
payment of the salaries of Eer Majesty's
household. This business is conducted
by an official called the paymaster of
the household; and when it is consider
ed what Multiplicity of offices there
are connected with the court-from the
lord of the Bedchamber to the page of
the back stairs-it can readily be i'm
agined how easily the sum is expended.
Glass 3 appropriates still higher sum
of Eta, 400, and is for the expenses of
the household. Royal housekeeping
and royal parties and balls must be
kept up on royal scale, and any one
who has visited the Bucking-
ham Palace news and the Windsor
stables - not to mention the royal
kitchen-will not wonder that this sum
finds plenty of channels for its disposal.
The amount of class is small, and its
purposes are almost entirely charitable.
Out of the sum of f13,200, 10000 is de-
voted to the payment of what are term,
ed "royal bounty grants" and Especial
service awards" Grants from the reyal
bounty fund, which are in the gift of
the premier, are generally made to dis
tressed literary men or women, or to
the necessitous relations of deceased
military or naval officers, or to Others
who have claims on the government.
Especial service" covers extraordinary
such, for instance, as the
award made to the officer who first
landed in England with the Abyssinian
dispatches from General Napier. The
aims, or "Maunday" money, also
come from class q, and to the amount
of $4,000 are distributed by the Bishop
of Oxford as Lord High Almoner. A
further item of El200 is devoted to the
payment of pensions to distressed la
dies. These pensions, as they fall in
through death, are the gift of the wife
OF the Prime Minister for the time be-
ing. Glass 5, which consists of the
payments made as pensions to deserv-
ing literary and scientific progress, or
to any that have deserved the gratitude
of their country, does not come out of
the f395, 900, but by special clause in
the act before referred to, the sum of
fl2O0 is set apart from the consolidated
fund in each year of the sovereign's
reign, for this purpose. The civil list
pensions now amount to G17,00O, after
allowing for deaths. Glass may be re-
garded as sort of reserve fund. The
amount of it is E504O, aud it may be
used toward meeting deficiency in any
of the other classes.