The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-03-03
CIVIL LISTS Of KINGS,
Although Monarohs Receive Large
Sums They Arc Under Very
Heavy Expense.
The Allowance IL Really a Sort of
Grant for Public
Purposes.
Castles, Residences. Public Works n
R~etinues That Must 10 Maintained
Compared With Presidents.

: LONDON, March AIT intervals, with
m%onotonous regularity, the question of the
OWL lists of sovereigns crops up ard is dis
cussed with a certain violence of acrimony,
in accusation and defense, according to the
political and financial views of the dispu-
tants. The systematic opponents of the
monarchial system repeatedly advance the
same arguments against the e~normousness
of the sums allowed to the crown under
the appellation of civil lists. Indeed, ms
they appear on paper, they do seem far be-
yond what any man may require for his OK
penditure, whatever his function or exalted
public position. Nevertheless, however
largo the difference between the amount
awarded by the nation to q monarch and to
a president it is much more fictitious than
real, il it is borne in mind that the former,
out of the sums he derives from the state,
has to pay not only his own expenses, but a
vast number of extraneous charges, en-
gagements taken in the name of royalty,
subsidies, useful and productive works by
which he relieves the special budgets of the
administration, and to mako himself indi-
vidually responsible for the proper and
wise Forthcoming out of the requisite funds.
Moreover the civil lists of kings remain
in point of fact in public circulation. They
benefit the whole community directly or
indirectly: n hand receives, the other
gives, and there Is probably no nuthenti-
Gated instance of their having enriched the
person, family or heirs of the recipients.
Tho hereditary ruler of a country is bound
to spend his civil list in its integrity for the
purposes for which he is entitled to receive
it, and he has by his antecedents no temp
aation to save any portion of 1t as a provi-
f~v AtN f,,As,~- Js-A~-r :n
modern times. has shown that many exiled
or dethroned sovereigns have departed
poorer than when they assembled the throne.
A few instances of the multifarious and
crushing charges incumbent on monarchs
will best support the above statement.
Queen Victoria. who ia superbly endowed,
as at her accession Lord Melbourne raised
the civil list to 43385, 600, exclusive of the
revenues of the duchy of Lancaster, is
obliged to keep up. repair and maintain
befttingly Buckingham palace. kensington
palace, Hampton court, Windsor castle,
Hollywood, and the tower of LondoD-to
pension a host of public servants, officials,
dependents and custodians, and to spend
annually an incredibly large sum: in SAL
aries. King Humbert of Italy, who re-
ceives 1900, 600 francs Of civil lists, has to
maintain q number of palaces in cities
that before the Italian unity were the cap
itals of independent states, whose citizens
would resent bitterly the relinquishing or
diminishing Of formalities which they con-
slider as a privilege and a sign of their i'm
and artistic monuments, which are a
national, almost a European, trust,
priced parts Of his royal inheritance; the
Quirinal at Rome, the palace of Castel-
porziano; the royal palaces at Naples and
that city; the Pitt. at Florence: the Pa
lnzzo del Re. in Turin; Mona, in the
Mllanese. San Rossore, near Pisa, inhabited
during Victor Emanuel's life by his NOR
ganatic wife, the Countess of Miratiore;
Moncalieri, near Turin, where the Princess
Clotilde lived so long; the convent and
church of Superga, on the high Piedmon-
tese mountain, where lie buried all the
kings Of Sardinia since Carlo Felice up to
the Re Galantuome, who is entombed in the
Pantheon; the monastery of Hauterive,
which, though since the annexation of Sa-
voy to France on French territory, has re-
manned by a clause of the treaty Of 1860 the
property of the kings of Italy.
The Emperor Francis Joseph has, of lall
the reigning sovereigns, the largest civil
5000, 600 for Hungary are voted by tho rep
resentatlves of the nations. But the ma
tions benefit in a considerable proportion
by the lavish sums bestowed ON their ruler.
emperor has the keeping of the Hof-
burg .(the palace of Vienna) with it's innu-
opHA Va dA0 btIVtItb, |
the two summer residences of ~Schoenbrunn
where the duke of Reichstadt, the only
son of Napoleon L., died-and of Laxen-
burg, the royal palaces of Buda-Pesth, the
imperial library corresponding to the
British museum library in London) the pal
ace of Hsadschin at Prague. and the Prater,
one of the best kept and finest public parks
in Europe. When to this outlay ia added a
substantial subvention to the Viennese
opera and the Burg theater Gan institution
resembling the Coincide Franchise in Paris)
another to the opera house at Buda-Pesth,
partly erected by the present emperor, the
salaries of the court f~unctionaries, pen
sions. the cost of gala ceremonies and equip
ages. the reception of foreign potentates-
always a considerable item in the budget of
all sovereiCns, and one which the country
ls ever anxious they should not stint-it is
easy to calculate how little of the 11,OOO,-
600 is left for the private use of the mon
arch.
Napoleon III, with twenty-five millions
OF francs. often found it difficult to meet
him. In November. 1880, the senate was
pussy with the liquidation of his civil list.
In September, 1870. When the empress left
the Iuileries. the imperial palaces were
filled with objects of art and value belong
ing personally to the occupants; some of
others as presents, others had been pur-
chased with their own private means. At
ter the war was over the emperor, through
M. Rouhsr, demanded the restitution of
these specified objects. The government
IN power ordered catalogues to be
made stating accurately what was to be
looked upon as state property and what as
private. Many years passed, The emperor
died in exile, and the prince imperial, as
his heir, persisted in the claim. The en-
press was especially anxious to repossess
the so-called Chinese museum at Fontaine-
2ieau ana the armory at Pierrefonds.
10 was rumored at the time that
among the treasures of the former was a
rosary consisting of pearls as large ms
filberts, which the empress had kept after
the campaign in China, but his was, in
only a string of jade beads, worth
about twenty pounds. However. with the
collection it remains at Fountaine-
bleau. The arms and armOr had been bought
by the emperor at various times since the
beginning of his reign and sent to the Pier |
refonds when that castle had been reno
vated by the empress. In February, 1850, n
months before the death of the prince 4
a judgment was delivered by IL o
of the Seine-after the suit had I
been pending nine years-to the effect that
all the articles which could be considered az
works OF art, as gems, or IA jewels, had no
character, and that once having
,een placed in the imperial palaces, became
he property of the state. The Chinese
museum of FO~ntainebleau, consisting pos /.
slbly OF presents offered to thn Empres" '
by the king of S am, a. d 4
Of Pierrefonds, bought l., I
Iha AInnarnr rAHn t-. l.. -