Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-07-04

OF $7SU,
The other English "duchy'-that of
corvallis the principal means of
support of the Prince of Wales With
out 1t, in fact, the heir to the throne.
whose expenses are many, probably
would have hard job to make both
ends meet, and might even have to
consider the idea of doing a little real
work. For, though his royal highness
is the owner of quite a bit of property
in London. including rather bad slum
district. he gets nothing whatever from
the civil list. though the queen mother
receives S350,000 a year and the Duke
of Connaught S125,000. The revenues
from the Duchy of Cornwall. however,
effectually save the situation, for they
amount to well over 100000 a year.
of which sum about half is passed to
the credit of the prince. About one
eighth is expended in the management
of the estate and about a tenth goes
to swell the reserve fund, the rest find
ing its way into the pockets of pen
sioners and of certain charities
Just as the king is always Duke of
Lancaster, his eldest son. the heir ap-
parent, Is invariably Duke of Cornwall
1t would be difficult, SO a barrister said,
to define the exact legal status of this
succession, there being no other in
stance in English law in which estate
or title descends in any way but
through the death of the holder. One
may worry. however, for the eldest
been Dukes Of Cornwall and enjoyed
all the privileges. material and formal,
of the position for close on six hun
dred years.
The first Duke of Cornwall was Ed
ward the Black Prince. upon whom
the title was conferred in 1887 Be-
fore this time Cornwall had been an
earldom, William the Conqueror having
to his half-brother, Robert Moraine, be-
cause, Is the ancient chroniclers have
1t, 1t was too valuable a possession to
be in the hands of any person not
closely allied with the royal house. 1t
surely has been a decidedly conven-
lent possession, having provided the
heir apparent with a snug income and
thus relieving the national excheuuer,
already heavy burdened with royalty,
of his keep.
During the reign of the Georges, the
revenues of the duchy fell to the lowest
figure in their history. principally from
the lack of businesslike control. The
prince consort, Queen Victoria's hus-
band, however. took hold of them after
he had been on deck for a while, and
managed the estates so skillfully, first
on behalf of the queen and then of
his eldest son, that they in time be-
came a more valuable property than
ever before.
The revenue comes from mining roy
alties and from estates possessed by
the duchy. principally in Somerset and
Devonshire, as well as in Cornwall
itself. Owing to the peculiarities of
the tin industry. which f1ourishes SO
extensively there, Cornwall enjoyed for
many years the privilege of making
its own laws and setting up it's own
courts, which had full Jurisdiction ex-
cept in matters that concerned land,
life or limb.
The duchy had. in fact. what might be
called a ''tin constitution" which dis
tinguished it from the rest of the
kingdom 1t was divided into four
"Stanneries," wfrom hhich were elected
the stanners parliament. The jurisdic-
ton of this parliament is now vested
in a llord warden, but the Inhabitants
do not seem to feel the loss of their
parliament very keenly, and there has
been no home rule agitation up to
now.
The duchy is now entirely run from