Middletown transcript., 1884-02-22
What Kings Cost.
.RosALEINE.

It is interesting to compare the
expense of maintaining a monarch on a
throne, and that of supporting a
President in the executive chair Of a
Republic.
For many years the salary of the
President of the United States was
S25, 900 year. This sum, indeed, did
not represent the entire cost to the
country of the executive Office. The
White House was supported, to some
extent, from the public purse; and
there were sundry other sums spent on
the Presidents Office. The salary of
the President was raised to $4,000
year during Gen. Grants term, and
continues at that figure and the whole
expense to-day of the Presidential Office
is probably something less than 500, 900
yearly.
The cost of kingships in the various
monarchies of Europe is much greater,
even in the smaller nations. The
sovereigns, in the old days, used to
spend pretty much what they pleased
ont of the public revenue. They were
mostly absolute, and would impose
taxes at will, and so raise an indefinite
income for their own display and
pleasures.
This is still the case with the Gar Of
Russia, whose expenditures are never
reported and cannot be estimated. The
Sultan of Turkey, too, has power to
raise all the taxes he can squeeze out
of his impoverished and indolent sub
jects, and cannot be called to account
for his spendings.
But in all other European mOnarchies
the sovereign is restricted. Absolute
despotism with them has been replaced
by constitutional systems. The En-
peror or King can only spend what is
voted to him by the Parliament or
Congress. A device new to this century,
called the Civil List, has been adopted
by nearly every monarchical country,
and also by the French Republic.
The Civil List is designed to provide
the sovereigns with fixed income. 1t
comprises a number of items, or heads
of expenditure and these are discussed
and passed upon each year by the several
legislative bodies.
Of course, each sovereign has a
greater or smaller private property of
his own as family inheritance, with
which his subjects have nothing to do.
The revenues he receives from the Civil
List, therefore, are what might be
called his salary in his public capacity,
and by no means show what his entire
income is.
The English Civil List, for instance,
provides Queen Victoria with an in
come of about two million dollars.
But she has also large private fortune,
SO that her receipts for the year reach
over three million dollars.
Germany provides the veteran En-
peror William with a Civil List of
about three million dollars which it
must be difficult for a monarch so
frugal and simple in his tastes and hib-
its to get rid Of in the course Of year.
His private property, moreover, adds at
least million to that vast sum.
King Humbert of Italy's Civil List
is three million eighty thousand dollars
a year, somewhat larger than that of
the German Emperor while young
Alfonso of Spain has only about a mil
lion and a half, so impoverished are
the people of his historic kingdom.
The lesser nations are, of course,
more economical. The sovereign of
Denmark has Civil List allowance of
two hundred and seventy-fve thousand
dollars year; which, however, is
three times what our President costs.
The King of Holland gets three hun
dred thousand dollars, and the King of
Greece two hundred and twenty thou
sand dollars.
Thus it is evident that, without
regard to any other aspect of the differ
ence between monarchies and republics,
at least the former is much the more
costly luxury of the two to the masses
of the people who have to pay the bills.