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so much credit, to one of a different kind.

Mr. Tierney was glad that this question was brought before the House in so satisfactory a manner, because its final issue would be the result of the most diligent and minute deliberation. In the observations he had to make, he should begin with noting the noble lord's assumption that the proposed reduction was a voluntary offer of economy on the part of the government. On his part, he viewed it as a necessary consequence of circumstances which had lately occurred. By the death of her majesty a great part of the Windsor establishment was done away with, and the House were called upon to see at what expense the subsequent arrangements could be made; for the money so spared was the property of the public, and it was the province of the House, and of that alone, to decide how it was to be disposed of. In considering it, therefore, he should first look to the measure of economy, and afterwards inquire about the expense.

There was one subject of past transactions which he could not omit to notice, which was the appointment of four lords, and four grooms of the bed-chamber, by the very individuals who now came forwards to say, that they were an useless burthen upon the public. They had continued a burden upon the country for seven years, which they now declare to have been unnecessary from the first. Here then, according to the present avowal of ministers, was a sum of 42,000l.

lost;

and if there was any one

sum of useless expenditure which might be said to be thrown away, it was the sum just now mentioned. With respect to the sum of 10,000l. to be given to the duke of York, he should say, that any extra expense to which his royal highness might be put in the care of his majesty, ought, most undoubtedly, to be defrayed by the public, be the sum great or small. If the same grant were shown to be necessary for the duke of York, he should be ready to accede to it, but let that necessity be first proved. Let the noble lord lay before the House, not merely the sums which were said to be required, but something like the particulars of what they were for, and it would not be difficult to come to a right understanding. Mr. T. next discussed the sum charged for the Windsor establishment, which he thought much beyond what was necessary. He then touched upon the remuneration to be granted to the physicians, on which point the noble lord had not given any explanation. He concluded with saying, that he could have no other object than honestly to discharge the duty he owed to his aged and infirm sovereign, not forgetting, at the same time, what was due to the wants of the country.

Mr. Canning expressed his confidence, that the admission of the right hon. gentleman, if acted upon frankly, and in the spirit in which he professed to make it, would bring him and his noble friend much nearer in their opinions on the subject than the right hon. gentleman at present perhaps supposed. He then

took

took a general view of the differences which might be expected still to oppose their junction, in which he corrected Mr. T. in his notion, that any one could subscribe to the opinion, that the privy purse was other than the property of the king, after the words of the act in 1812 had absolutely decided in favour of his majesty's claim.

Mr. Tierney, in explanation, said that he well knew the provisions of the act of 1812; and in adding that he was ready to repeal it, he expected to have the hon. gentleman for his seconder.

It was then agreed, that the Prince Regent's Message should be referred to a committee of the whole House on the 11th instant; and that the Royal Establishments be referred to a select committee.

On February 5, the Prince Regent's message respecting her late majesty's establishment having been read, the Earl of Liverpool rose to move an humble Address to the Prince Regent, in which he took notice of his Royal Highness's munificence in placing the whole sum of 58,000l. at the disposal of Parliament, and only asked that justice to be done to the servants of her late majesty, which had been done in all former cases of the demise of a queen. The allowances on this occasion might be estimated at 25,000l.; from which there would remain 33,000l. immediately at the disposal of the public; and it could not be supposed, that any of their lordships would be disposed to resist a claim which was one of justice and liberality. The earl then moved an humble Address

to the Prince Regent, thanking him for his gracious communication, and assuring his Royal Highness, that their lordships would not fail to pay due attention to the claims recommended by his Royal Highness to their notice.

The Marquis of Lansdowne was willing to concur in the general object of the Address, on account of the practical application of the fund in question, which he fully approved. But as to the power implied by the message, of the king or his ministers to take one head of the civil list, and apply it to any other purposes of the civil list, he held it to be an assertion totally inconsistent with the spirit, if not with the letter, of the act for the regulation of the civil list which was passed two or three years ago. The demands for the maintenance of her majesty and her servants formed part of the estimates on which the sums were voted; there appeared, therefore, no reason for saying that a sum, which had been appropriated to one branch of the civil list, should, in the case of the ground on which it was granted ceasing, become applicable to other branches. With respect to the application of the 58,000l. as proposed by the message, no person felt more strongly than he did, the propriety of that application.

The Earl of Liverpool said, that when, from the votes of the other House, the matter came regularly before their lordships, he should feel it his duty to give such explanations as the occasion might seem to him to require. With regard to the question imme

diately

diately under consideration, he thought that their lordships could not hesitate in adopting the principle laid down in the message respecting the power of the Prince Regent in the disposal of the 58,000l. Having stated the grounds on which the principle of the message was supported by the act of parliament, he had to add, that it never was his intention to take any unfair advantage of the state of the law.

The Address was then agreed to, nem. diss.

REPORT from the Committee on the Royal Establishments.-The Committee to whom the Establishment of her late Majesty, and the Estimate of the Expenses of the proposed Establishment of his Majesty's future House hold at Windsor, were referred, -have agreed to the following Report:

Your Committee have deemed it to be their duty, in the first place, to take into their consideration the arrangement which has been proposed for the future establishment of his Majesty.

By the Act of the 52 Geo. 3rd, c. 8, the sum of 100,000l. was directed to be set apart annually out of the Civil List, for the expense of the king's household; and any surplus, after defraying this charge, was to be applied to the purposes of his majesty's civil establishment.

It appears to your Committee, that the reduction, which is proposed in that expenditure, of one half, may with propriety be made; and that an annual sum of 50,000l. will be sufficient to provide for this service; and they refer to the

**

estimates, under the different heads, annexed to this Report.

In considering the scale and expense of the establishment which it is necessary to form, while they approve of the discontinuance of the salaries of certain of the officers of state, who have hitherto, since his majesty's indisposition, been retained, yet your Committee recommend, that, at the head of the establishment, an officer of the rank of the groom of the stole should be placed, as they deem it important to have a person of rank, and of high station, connected with the king's service, generally residing near his majesty's person. For the same reasons it appears expe dient, that one of the king's equerries (the number of whom, in the judgment of the Committee, ought to be limited to four) should be in daily and constant

attendance at Windsor.

In the examination of the estimates for defraying the charge of the proposed tables, and for the other branches of expenditure at Windsor, your Committee have received satisfactory explanations respecting them from Colonel Stephenson, to whom the superintendence of the king's household has been in a great degree confided.

It appears to them, that the estimates have been framed, for the services to which they are to be applied, with a due attention to economy; and they refer particularly to "the explanatory statement of the estimate for the expense of his majesty's household," which is annexed. large portion of the expense which, as your Committee are, informed,

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informed, cannot be estimated at less than one-third of the whole amount, will be at all events to be incurred by the maintenance of Windsor Castle as a royal residence, and ought not to be set down as exclusively belonging to the establishment of his majesty. The names and descriptions of the officers, whose salaries have been discontinued, will be found in the Appendix, together with a list of the menial servants who have been reduced, and the amount of the wages and appointments which the latter received in the king's service.

Your Committee next proceeded to the subject of the establishment of her late Majesty, which had been referred to their consideration.

His royal highness the Prince Regent having been pleased, by his gracious message, to place at the disposal of parliament, the sum of 58,000l. per annum, in consequence of her majesty's demise, and at the same time to recommend to the House of Commons, the claims founded on the faithful services of those who formed the separate establishment of her majesty, in order that the House might be enabled to judge what part of that sum it may be advisable to apply to the annual provision for such persons, your Committee have obtained accounts of such allowances as were made to the officers and servants of queen Mary on her demise in the year 1694; of queen Caroline in 1737; and to the household of the princess dowager of Wales in 1772; amounting annually, for the establishment of queen Mary, to 15,278l. 16s. 8d.;

to that of queen Caroline, to 19,8127.; and for the household of the princess dowager of Wales, to 19,7021. 7s. 10d.

The grants, in the instances referred to, were not brought under the consideration or view of parliament, but were paid out of the Civil List revenues; an annual saving on these revenues having been made by the discontinuance of the respective royal establishments to a greater extent than those allowances amounted to. In the year 1782, by the act passed for the regulation of the Civil List, the amount of pensions to be granted out of the Civil List revenues was limited, and in consequence of that limitation, and the present charge on the Pension List, it is not possible to place such allowances as it may be wished to grant to the queen's servants upon that fund; but the whole sum of 58,000l., which was annually paid to the queen, being now at the disposal of parliament, it remains for parliament to make such provision, in this respect, as it may in its liberality think fit.

In offering for the consideration of the House the annexed scale of pensions, recommended for the servants of her late majesty, while your Committee have had in view the expectations which those persons may reasonably have entertained, as to the provision which would be made for them when their services should cease, they yet feel it to be their duty to submit to the House, that this recommendation should not be drawn into precedent on the formation of future establishments.

It will be observed, that the state,

state officers, as well as some others, to whom their salaries were continued for life, in the instances referred to, do not appear in the list which is proposed. The general principle which has been adopted in framing it, being to suggest a provision for the female part of the queen's household, and for the domestic officers and menials, of whom the greater proportion have been for many years, and during the course of a long reign, attached to her service. The amount of this provision, together with the pensions to be continued to such as were the objects of her majesty's benevolence, is less than was given upon the two last occasions which have been noticed, without taking into account the difference in the value of money at those periods, and at the present.

If parliament shall approve of what has been here submitted, legislative enactments will be required to carry these regulations into effect. It will be necessary to alter that part of the act of the 52nd Geo. 3rd, cap. 8, which appoints the attendants on the king's 'person, and also to regulate the sum to be in future appropriated for defraying the expense of his majesty's household. That clause also of the act of the 56th Geo. 3rd, cap. 46, which enacts, that whenever the charge upon the Civil List shall exceed, in any one year, 1,100,000l., an account of the exceeding, and the cause thereof, shall be laid before parliament, must be amended, so as to require a similar account to be submitted, whenever that charge shall exceed the amount to which the expenditure of the Civil List

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shall be limited by the reductions which are now proposed. 17th February, 1819. Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.

On February 22nd, the House of Commons having resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House, for the purpose of taking into consideration the Report of the Select Committee on the Royal Establishment at Windsor,

Lord Castlereagh rose, and said that he should state very shortly the proceedings which he should adopt as most convenient under all the circumstances of the case. The first resolution which he had in view to propose, related to the Windsor establishment in general. Instead of 100,000l., he proposed that 50,000l. should in future be granted. This, in fact, contained the sum and substance of the whole measure; for the labours of the Select Committee had abridged very much of what it would otherwise have been his duty to submit to the committee of the whole House. With respect to the amount of the sum regarded as necessary by the Select Committee, he thought that their opinion, that 50,000l. was a suitable and proper allowance for the support of his majesty, could not be called in question; and he found no difference of opinion among his.colleagues who sat with him in the same commission.

The second resolution related to the making of suitable provision for the servants of her late majesty. The Select Committee thought it was just and right that a remuneration ought to be given to the inferior servants of her late majesty, especially to the female attendants;

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