The Northwestern standard., 1886-04-03
THE EXPENSE OF ROYALTY.
A Disposition to AntagoniRe the In
reasonable Charges Of the
Royal Household.
BURDENS or THE BRITISH PUBLIC
Marked Increase Of the Radical Element
in the British House Of
Commons,

respondent of the Chicago Daily News,
in a recent letter to that paper dis
cusses inteliigently the enormous cost
of royalty and the great change that
has taken place in late years, respect
ing the freedom with which members
of the British house Of commons can
criticize the royal family, without being
deprived of their liberty on account OF
alleged reasonable utteIances. We
present extracts from Mr.. Daly's letter,
and recommend them to the attention
OF the readers of the STANDARD:
The remarkable growth OF demo-
cratic feeling in the house OF commons
is shown by the debates on Mr. La
Douchere's motion against the house OF
lords, and his proposal to reduce the
vote for the royal palaces in the civil
service estimates. Mr.. Labouchefe IS
one of the most curious figures IN par
lament. He is a little man with a
stolid face and a habit of standing
with his hands in his pockets while he
enunciates the most revolutionary SEN
timents. He is the proprietor OF a
journal which gives all the tittle-tattle
Of aristocratic society, but mercllessly
exposes abuses and scandals in high
places. Mr., Labouchere is a man OF
business and he knows that there is
money to be made out of the native
British curiosity about lords and la
dies; but with perfect consistency he
objects to the anomaly of making a
! young nobleman, who has probably
spent all his time with Durlesque act
resses and jockeys, a legislator simply
| because his father sat in the house OF
| lords before him. We are gradually ap-
preaching the time when this absurdity
| will be reformed, and the increase Of
the radical element in the house of COM
mons shows that the democracy is
making up its mind to bring the con-
stitltiOn of the house of lords into ac-
cord " nth common sense.
$ But the most striking thing of all
| is the confidence with which a member
of parliament can now criticise the
royal family. Time was when Mr..
I.abouchere would have been received
with indignant hoWls when he ven
tured to find fault with the expenditure
of royal households. But the other
night the house listened without a nlur-
mur while he complained of the charge
for the royal kitclDn-g gardens, and
\ asked what became OF the vegetables.
/ The duke of Edinburgh has 925, GOO a
year and house rent free, and yet he
/ is not ashamed to make the country
pay for his Goals. Not long ago parlia-
ment was asked to meet a little bill OF
e75 for broken windows at Marl-
borough house. 1t is not royal amuse-
ment to break windows. That occupa-
| ton is left to the socialists; but as no.
body could show that Marlborough
/! house had suffered from riot it was
inconceivable that the prince Of Wales
should have been obliged to spend this
sum On GLACIERS. For no apparent rea-
son the water charges for Windsor
castle have been tripled. There is no
ground for the belief that the Queen s
household has suddenly been converted
| to total abstinence What, then, has
been done with this intolerable guam
/ titY of water These are matters on
which MIR. Labouchere disconrses with
out a trace OF that Differences to the
crown which was once supposed to be
the chief attribute Of a good citizen.
He cannot even see Why the queen
should have so many palaces (which
are maintained at the cost of the coun-
! tryl, though she rarely lives in them.
Why are they not sold or letY says
he, and the high old Tories listen in si-
| lent disgust, Knowing that it is not of
the slightest use to denounce this
stolid-faced littlt man with his hands in
his pockets. Then the minister whose
duty it is to explain the estimates, and
| who is very advanced radical. looks
very much embarrassed, and offers of
ficial explanations which are no ex-
plantations at all. Then it is suggested
that one of the ex-ministers should
throw some light on the subject, and up
rises bald old gentleman, who pro-
tests that there were so many files of
documents in his Office when he was in
power that he cannot carry them all on
his head All this means that we have
not yet rdached the point of insisting
that the royal accounts shall be strictly
supervised like The rest. Successive
ministries evade this question as if it
were high treason to require an explain
alton of the increased water rate of
Windsor castle. The duke Of Edin-
hurgh goes on charging us or his Goals,
quite unconscious Of the fact that there
is not an artisan or an agricultural
laborer who would not be ashamed of
such meanness. But the prince who
decks strange goddesses with his w1fe's
Jewels cannot. be expected to have =