The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-08-16
The Cost of q King.

the sum from twelve 10 fourteen million
francs annually, three millions of which
are for the Kings personal expenses. One
would think that six hundred thousand
dollars was liberal annual allowance,
but it seems that the head Of this nation
feels the want of money as much as any
of his subjects.
When we remember that his expen-
ditures are very great and must be pro-
portioned to those of the other mOnarchs
of Europe; that his gifts and his char
tiles are made in sums adapted to the
magni6cence in which he lives, and that
he has an army of servants and depend
ents, the wonder disappears, and we are
only surprised that he can live on so lit
tie. Mosaic tables and pictures that cost
twenty or thirty thousand dollars; sets
Of jewelry at sixteen thousand dollars
each; one hundred and fifty watches at
once for presents; costly diamond dec
orations; oil portraits of himself; Arab
horses; these are the gifts of the King.
His gifts to charity are made also in
large sums. An instance of this is the
aid which has been recently given to
Madame Schwabe's charity schools in
Naples from the Kings private income
The sum of twelve hundred dollars an
nually has been promised her, and this
is only one out of many cases of charity.
These schools deserve the attention which
Madame Schwabe's unceasing efforts
have succeeded in attracting to them. She
has more than three hundred children at
tending them, and has given large sums
of her own money to support them.
The KinO has danandentS and men,
sioners of all ranks, beside stables ia
nous for the rare horses which he has
collected in them. A new building for
Quirinal, which is itself palace. The
big-eyed, soft-skinned, intelligent and
beautiful creatures, forty or fifty of them,
ranged in stalls on either side, turn their
heads to look at you as you enter their
royal abode, and then return to their oats
perfectly contented with their condition.
Besides these expenses the King is the
possessor of three hundred and forty
three palaces more or less magnificent
and expensive. 1t is said that merely to
keep them in order and pay the officers
and servants attached to them costs two
hundred thousand dollars annually. I'm
agine what an encumbrance it must be to
ewn so many homes that the whole year
would not be long enough to pass more
than day in each of them! For Victor
Emmanuel, whose tastes are simple, and
who seems to be always anxious to fly
from the pomp and ceremony of court
life, it must be an especial burden.
The Ministry presented the bill, which
was supported by the majority Of the
p,rra ,rd,,ant;o1 rnou, harS of tho honSa
but no less than thir,y-one independent
spirits opposed the measure and desired
to place the direction of what is called
the Lista Cipile, or the expenses of the
court, except the private expenses of the
King, under the control of Parliament.
This party, however, is not the most in
fuential in Parliament. and a number of
the opposite opinion said that their prop
Osition was one of "immense impro-
priety." The antiquity of the House of
Savoy was called to mind by those men,
bers who advocated giving the King
fourteen million francs (more than four
and half millions of dollars) annually.
That royal house has existed a thousand
years, and during that time, with every
opportunity to do so, it has never en-
riched itself, and has remained compar-
stively poor while many of the noble
families have grown rich. The brave and
noble history of this royal family, the ira
ditions of their courage and the generosity
Of Victor Emmanuel himself, deserve all
praise. Many of these palaces, which
were in fact museums of art,
have been presented by the King
to the nation, and they are now
open to the public. This bill also emu
merates ten or twelve palaces which the
King, finding them more expensive aud
troublesome than useful, would like to
make over to the government or to the
cities where they are. These are small
villas and parks held really for the good
of the villages near them, which he was
obliged to keep in order. OF these were
the park and hill adjoining the royal pal
ace at Caserta, which he wished to return
to that town. The lovely green hill
called San Leucio, on the right of the
cascade when you enter the royal park,
is the only one of the Apennines near
Caserta which is not bleak and gray and
deserted, and the inhabitants did not
wish it to be given to the city, divided
into small lots and shorn of all its beau
ty. Upon this hill is the delightful park
Of Caserta, and the rest of il is divided
into parts attended by foresters, where
several hundred bears are kept for the
chase. The other hill is San Sylvestro,
down which falls a stream, conducted for
miles IN Caserta. and which forms the