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 Household 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 expedient, 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. A large portion of the expense which, as your Committee are informed,

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 15,278/. 16s. 8d.;

to that of queen Caroline, to 19,812.; 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

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 50,000. 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;

attendants; but with respect to her state officers, the same precedents seemed to them not obligatory. Having, therefore, examined into the claims of her majesty's servants, they made a deduction of those salaries which were paid to persons of a more elevated rank in life, amounting to between 6 and 7,000l. a year, thus reducing the sum to between 18 and 19,000l. a year. His majesty's government, therefore, did not feel themselves authorized to propose a larger sum than the above, to the servants of her majesty.

On the third resolution, respecting his majesty's private purse, the noble lord most strenuously contended, that it was a private fund, which ought not to be touched at all. It was a fund with which parliament could not interfere, unless they were disposed to over-leap all the boundaries of law and equity. After dwelling for a considerable time upon this idea, he was proceeding to move the resolution in question, when, after a short pause, he rose again, saying, that he should have omitted a principal part of his duty, had he not called the attention of the House to the situation of the royal duke. On this subject he was authorized to declare, from his royal highness, that no consideration could induce him to accept of any sum out of the privy purse of his majesty. He (the duke) should, in any event, be happy to discharge the duties which his situation rendered necessary towards his royal father and his country; but as to taking any part of the private property of his father, he desired it to be stated, that it was a measure VOL. LXI.

to which, directly or indirectly, he never would consent.

The noble lord concluded by moving, "That in lieu of the sum of 100,000l., directed to be issued and paid by an act made in the 52nd year in the reign of his present majesty, the annual sum of 50,000. shall be issued and paid out of the Civil List revenues, and which shall be paid in like manner, and be applied to the same uses and purposes as are directed by the said act, with respect to the said sum of 100,000l."

Mr. Tierney said, that he should follow the noble lord's example, in dividing into three heads the observations he had to offer; the first, as to what should be the reduced amount of the future Windsor establishment; the second, as to the allowances made to the servants of her late majesty; and the third, which was the greatest and most constitutional part of the question, from what, if from any fund, the sum to be paid to his royal highness the duke of York, as guardian of the king's person, should be taken. With respect to the Windsor establishment, he acknowledged that a second consideration concerning the expense belonging to Windsor Castle, had so far converted him, that he was ready to give up his opinion; and as to the allowances proposed for her late majesty's servants, he lamented that the subject had been referred to the committee, but thought that it had endeavoured to strike out the proper line. With respect to the great question, namely, out of what fund the guardian of the king's person was to be remunerated? he was told, in the eloquent de[C]

clamation

clamation with which the noble lord concluded, that if he (Mr. T.) succeeded in inducing the committee to agree to his proposition, he would heap infamy on a new House of Commons. But, with deference to the opinion of the minister, he thought that any sum which parliament chose to offer, out of any fund, for the performance of a public duty, the proudest royal duke might be proud to receive. The argument of the noble lord was, that the privy purse was private property. The construction of the different acts of parliament would prove, that this argument was erroneous. At the commencement of his majesty's reign, it was enacted, that a certain sum should be set tled upon his majesty for the maintenance of the royal household, and the due support of the royal dignity. This was not to be at the absolute disposal and control of his majesty, but was to be applied to certain purposes; and if it was more than sufficient to answer those purposes, the surplus became the property of the public: It was then to the support of the royal household and the maintenance of the royal dignity, that the sum was granted, and not any mention was made of the privy purse. The sum granted by the act was 800,000l. per annum, and the king was to take charge of all expenses which might come under the head of civil list, under the responsibility of his ministers, who were subject to the same responsibility to parliament. It was not till the 39th of the king that savings having grown up out of the privy purse and the duchy

of Lancaster, his majesty was empowered to dispose of them by will. The act was purposely intended to enable his majesty to dispose of sums which had been issued out of the privy purse, and were vested in real or personal property; but the privy purse was not there mentioned as a particular limited sum. Whatever the king had saved up to the period of his illness was, indeed, private property under that act, and might be disposed of at his pleasure.

He should now consider the manner in which the privy purse was regarded in the 51st and 52nd of the king; and to this part of the subject he begged the particular attention of the committee. At the time of passing the first of those acts, there seemed a reasonable prospect of his majesty's speedy recovery, and the object was, that at the time of his majesty's convalescence, he should find every thing about him in the same situation as before his illness. Now, if the privy purse had been, as it was contended to be, the private property of the king, as sacred and inviolable as the estate of a private gentleman, why was any separate arrangement made concerning it, different from that concerning private property in general? Why was it thought necessary to have an act of parliament on the subject. This act, however, recognized the principle of disposing of this fund. Then came the more melancholy year, in which all prospect of his majesty's recovery was contemplated as a mere possibility. It then was necessary to provide for his

majesty's