Page images
PDF
EPUB

cedent which ought to satisfy many gentlemen. At present, he conceived nothing could be worse adapted, either for distinctness to its managers, intelligibility to the public, or for the real comfort, honour, and dignity of the Crown, than the whole method, if method it might be called, in which the civil list had been settled. Suppose any man, not very wellversed in the minutia of finance, were asked how much the revenues of the King of England amounted to in a year, what answer could be given? Every body could tell what was the revenue of the French King, of the American President, or formerly of the Dutch Stadtholder; but as to the salary of the King of England, with which he supported the splendour and dignity of his Crown, no man who was not a perfect adept in finance could give any conclusive information about it. Had it not been for this system of obscurity and mismanagement, Payne could never have asserted that the King of England enjoyed 900,000l. a-year. Was it dealing fairly with the King to mix up with the little he was allowed (and a little it undoubtedly was) to defray his private expenses, and really to keep up his honour and dignity, the salaries of the Judges, the income of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his friends, presents to foreign ministers, and a vast accumulation of claims and allowances to officers, great and small, of all sorts and conditions? But, cried the right honourable gentleman opposite, "to simplify matters in this way, to make accounts clear and explicable, would be beneath the dignity of the Crown." Admitting it for a moment, was there nothing to be gained by it-were popularity and the full approbation of the King's subjects worth no consideration? Supposing there might be some slight defalcation of dignity, was there no ad

vantage in preventing great defalcations of a pecuniary kind, which had been perpetually occasioned by this absurd, confused, Gothic mode of keeping accounts? After all, where would be the loss of dignity, if the people told their Prince" You shall be paid largely, liberally, cheerfully, without a murmur from the people, who well know that your interests and theirs are inseparably united— not as at present, but by a fixed, constant, determined grant out of the consolidated fund." That, in truth, was his (Mr Brougham's) proposition; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his love for mystery, seemed to think that there was something sublime in obscurity. The misfortune for him, however, was, that we lived in a prying age, when men would not be satisfied with being told that they must not examine and scrutinize; and when they did inquire, they would find that, among the hereditary revenues of the Crown, the Sovereign did not think it below his dignity to have his revenue made up of one penny per barrel upon ale, and one halfpenny upon whisky. This paltry pittance was accepted in exchange for the great feudal relics of wardship and purveyance-the especial jewels in the crown of a feudal Sovereignthe gems that gave a glorious lustre to his ancient, real, and solid dignity. The dignity of the Sovereign appeared to him seriously injured by the company in which he was placed by the present arrangement. The ark itself did not contain a greater variety of beings than were to be found marshalled in the civil list. There was the Vicar of the Tower, with 17. 13s. a-year; the Vicar of St Botolph, with 11. 15s.; the Church-wardens of St John the Baptist, at 17. 18s. Then there were the Master of the Field Sports, the Master of the Hawks, and the Master of the Ceremonies.

But not only were those who superintended the chase, the amusement of hawking, and the dance, paid out of the civil list; the expenses incidental to the keeping of wild beasts were also entered amongst the items. The keeper of the lions in the Tower was enumerated amongst the officers; and not far from him they would find the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. Next came the "Exchequer watchmen." It appeared to him most fallacious to fix the civil list for the life of the King. It might, in this instance, be a short life, which God forbid! It might be a long and prosperous one, which God grant! But, with this contingency before them, it was the greatest blunder that sensible men ever made, or could ever make, to come at once to a final arrangement of the Civil List. The House could be practically convinced of this fact. His late Majesty reigned for 60 years; and during that period there were six new arrangements, besides eight different payments in aid of the civil list. It would appear that even nine years were too long for the continuance of this provident system. The arrangement of 1760 was made as if it were supposed that the monarch was to live only nine years; but in 1769 a debt of 8,000,000l. had accumulated; and in 1777 it was found necessary to grant 60,000l. more per annum. An arrangement for life could not proceed on any one conceivable principle. They should wholly separate from the Civil List the salaries of the Judges, the salary of the Speaker of the House of Commons—a situation that should be as independent as that of the Sovereign himself and the payments made to foreign ministers.

Mr Brougham now undertook to state to the House how the sums which formed the Droits of the Crown accrued. Gentlemen supposed that

they were confined to Droits of the Admiralty; but they were greatly mistaken. There were other sources that placed large sums in the hands of the Crown. In 1817, the sum of 130,000l. fell to the Crown, in consequence of the demise of a rich lunatic-at least, so he understood. In 1807, an individual who had no heirs died intestate; his property, to the amount of 47,000l. went to the Crown. In 1816, the Crown got possession of 62,000l. in the same way. Other sums, much larger in amount, were supplied from different sources. In 1804, prizemoney to the amount of 105,000l. was received on one occasion. In the same year there was another sum of 40,000l., and a third of 55,000l. In 1806, those droits were augmented by 155,000l. ; and at one period there came in nearly the whole proceeds of the Dutch prizes, amounting to 1,657,000l. From the Spanish condemnations the sum of 2,200,000%. was derived. He was far from blaming the House for having voted a loyal and grateful address to the King, in consequence of his having given 1,000,000l. to carry on the expenses of the war. But how would it have astonished our ancestors, if they had beheld the Monarch, instead of calling on Parliament to assist him with a tenth, coming down to the House as a giver and dispenser of moneyas the benefactor of those from whom, according to the safe and sacred course of the Constitution, all money, for public purposes, ought to come! He alluded also to the revenue derivable from the Leeward Islands, from Gibraltar, from Scotland, &c. which amounted to a very large sum. How was it disposed of? In pensions. It was not under the control of Parliament, and might be expended as the reward of good services or bad services, or as the meed of favouritism, or for no services at all. If any

pension were necessary to be granted to a great naval or military character -to Earl St Vincent, to Lord Hutchinson, to Lord Nelson, or their heirs was there an individual in that House who would not feel it to be his duty to recommend a grant to those gallant commanders, or their relatives? If such a proposition were made, it was sure to be carried. But there were many other cases; and Mr B. from his own side of the House instanced Lady Grenville, where a minister deemed it more advisable to screw a pension out of some fund over which Parliament had no control, rather than bring it under the consideration of the House. Mr B. then instanced with derision the case of Sir Home Popham, who, tiring of the inactivity of peace, had engaged in an immense smuggling transaction. His vessel, however, was taken by Commodore Robinson, and condemned in a competent court. Yet Sir Home had received, first 25,000l., and then 50,000l., out of these droits, as expenses of suit, and to console him under the disappointment. If these droits were dangerous in their application, their origin appeared to him ten times worse. They offered a temptation to the Crown to embark in wars, and though he did not believe that any Sovereign since Charles II. would be covertly swayed to engage in war by this motive, yet his aversion to it might be mitigated. But the chief danger appeared to him to arise from the regulation, that every prize made before a declaration of war became a droit of the Crown. The tendency of those funds was, to give ministers a direct interest in proceeding to hostilities before a declaration of war, and thus they lowered the honour and character of the country. These vessels were the purchase-money of the honour, the good faith, the pure and unsullied name of England.

He had only to refer to the Dutch war in the time of Charles II.; that war was undertaken for the purpose of seizing the Smyrna fleet-for which perfidious action Providence punished that Monarch, by overwhelming him and his ministers in discomfiture and disgrace. But, to come to later times, what did they think of the Dutch-what of the Spanish prizes? 2,200,000l. were acquired by attacking unarmed, defenceless men-men who knew of no reason for such a proceeding except that they had dollars on board their ships. At all events, every pretence would thus be taken from their enemies for slandering the nation upon this ground, As to the 4 per cent on the native commodities of Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, it had been granted originally for the building of forts, a prison, session-house, and other public charges. In Queen Anne's time, it appeared that a complaint was made to Parliament which that body listened to, and petitioned the Queen to restore the fund to its proper uses. Here it was lost sight of, till it was strangely found to have become the absolute property of the Crown, which now made it a fund for obscure pensioners of all descriptions. Upon the whole, Mr Brougham concluded, that if now, in opposition to the clear law of the question, in opposition to the constitutional view of its principle, in the face of numerous precedents of mischievous abuse derived from history-if now the House neglected the opportunity of wiping away a foul blot on the honour of the country, by giving up a vile relic of feudal barbarism, useless for any national purposes, and serving only as an occasion of calumny to our carping rivals and bitter enemies-if now, when this mischief could be done away, without injury to the Crown, and with benefit to the people, the House

should suffer the opportunity to be lost, it would, in fact, go the length of saying that these droits ought to remain for ever a lasting anomaly in the law and constitution, a perennial source of abuses, and a perpetual stigma on the character of the country.

Mr Canning stood up to oppose the motion. Any one who had merely heard the vehement close of the speech of the honourable gentleman, would have supposed it directed against some new assault of arbitrary power-some sudden encroachment of ministerial rapacity; but a person would have been much surprised to learn that the object was to propose an innovation, which, instead of relieving, tended to levy a new burden on the people. He could answer, however, both for the crown and for ministers, that they would reject the boon offered for selling the royal prerogatives. The proposition from the throne stated that no new burden was contemplated for the support of the civil government and of the splendour of the crown. It was ungraciously said, that though no new fund was wanted, yet it was the business of the House to see whether there was not something to take away. The honourable and learned gentleman had fairly, indeed more than fairly, professed his willingness to make compensation for all he should take away; so that the question, as far as his argument was concerned, was not one of diminution or retrenchment, but of bargain and sale, with the chance of inflicting further burdens on the people. With regard to the 4 per cent duties, there was indeed some obscurity in their origin; but the usage of four reigns, during upwards of a century, established the existence of the property, and the custom and power of granting pensions on it. But it was said to be the evil of those uncontrolled funds,

VOL. XII. PART I.

that they enabled the crown to bestow secret bounties on obscure favourites. This was a singular character of a fund, one of the first names on which was the illustrious William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and one of the last, Edmund Burke. Without discussing at present the right of the Crown to the droits of Admiralty, he would merely state the mode in which they had been administered. In the course of the late reign, the whole proceeds of this fund had amounted to about 9,700,000l. Out of this there had been paid to captors and for various law expences 5,372,COOL. There remained, therefore, something more than 4,000,000l. to be accounted for. Out of that sum 2,600,000l. had been contributed for the public service; and two several sums had been given, one in aid of the civil list, the other of the 44 per cent fund. The first of these contributions was 1,300,000l., the second 40,000l. ; there remained, therefore, about 380,000l. to be accounted for. This sum had been paid partly in donations to different branches, and partly in entertainments to foreign sovereigns. The expenditure, however, of the whole, had been communicated to Parliament. It was part of the new arrangement that an ac count of every grant out of this fund should, as a matter of course, and without address, be laid before the House in every session, immediately after such grant. It was admitted that there had been no remarkable abuse of the fund in question : still it was urged, that Parliament would make a better application. "The honourable and learned gentleman," said Mr Canning, "states truly what he says of those on this side of the House, and what I would say were I where he sits; but I think it better that the patronage of the Crown should reward public services by property under its peculiar protection, than that

D

a democratic assembly should dole out largesses and favours according to the impulse and force of passion, party, or canvass. We have had instances enough, in our own memory, of what canvass can do. Setting on the one side the chances of favour, canvass, party, and inadvertency; on the other, the chances of extravagance, I do think the Crown the better trustee. The present state of the droits in consideration is sanctioned by long usage, if it is not stained by abuse; and in the long period of 60 years the honourable and learned gentleman has hit upon only one questionable case, and that case questionable only in the view which he has taken of it. I entreat of the learned and honourable gentleman not to concede anything to the moral character of the administration. I entreat of him not to concede anything to the character of the existing Sovereign; and, in a constitutional view, nothing of this kind ought to be conceded. The honourable and learned gentleman spoke properly of Charles II., for a king once departed from life is fair subject of animadversion. But I ask him whether, on the average virtue of kings and ministers, if you place four millions-and that is beyond any case that can be imagined if you place four millions against all the evil, the danger, and the disgrace that must overwhelm them when the proceedings, perhaps in twelve hours after, becomes known to Parliament, I ask, whether, in such a case, any administration would rush into war? I ask whether, in times such as we live in, for the sake of any haul of droits-I do not say the sovereign-I do not say his ministersbut whether the vilest mind that ever meddled with public affairs, or contemplated public administration, could recommend a wanton and unjustifiable war?" The only other argument

that could be employed was, that every vestige of feudal monarchy would thus be removed. But though a plausible constitution might be established, and one that would look well upon paper, he could not consent to see the monarch thus stripped naked, and every trace of antiquity done away with. Even this would not satisfy a certain class of politicians. Mr B. himself admitted that he had not made up his mind whether the insulated king should have the control of his own household; whether the various items of charge in that department should be audited by a committee of this House, or by the King himself. If the household were not given up to his Majesty's management, the civil list could be quoted and exposed to much greater ridicule than the honourable and learned gentleman had thrown upon the part he had selected. Unless the monarch should be put on board-wages, and should dine in a chop-house, they must come to the monstrous conclusion that there would be more dishes on his table than he absolutely required. When he had entered that House, he had expected something more practicable from the honourable and learned gentleman than a proposal to strip the crown, at one sweep, of all that adorned it since the Revolution; to divest the King of his peculiar power and privileges; to make the civil list less involved by making it entirely new, When nothing was demanded; when the sovereign-he would not say consented-declared that he would receive with gratitude and satisfaction the civil list that had been acquiesced in for four years-when this declaration was made, when the sovereign expressed himself satisfied, and declared that he would have no reduc

tion made upon any sums falling into the country-what was the return? "Ay, but you have other funds, and

« PreviousContinue »