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VOTES of April 16, 1777.

The Houfe was moved, "That the Order "made upon Wednesday laft, for referring

the feveral Accounts [refpecting the Civil "Lift] which were then prefented to the

Houfe, by the Lord North, by His Ma

jefty's Command, to the Committee of "the whole Houfe, to whom it was refer"red to confider further of the Supply

granted to His Majefty," might be read. And the faid Order being read accordingly; A motion was made and the Question being put, "That the said Order be discharged;" It paffed, in the Negative.

Mr. Wilkes faid,

Mr. Speaker,

THERE

HERE is not a Gentleman in this Houfe, or in the kingdom, more anxious than I am that the fplendor and dignity of the crown of England fhould be maintained in its trueft

VOL. II.

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luftre

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luftre, although for above a course of fifteen years I have received from the Crown only a fucceffion of injuries, and never in any moment of my life the flighteft favour. I had the honour, fir, of a feat in this Houle, when the affair of the Civil Lift was first agitated in Parliament in the beginning of his prefent Majefty's reign, when every good subject hoped to have more than the idea of a Patriot King. I then acquiefced in the proposed grant. The acceptance of an annuity of 800,000l. and the giving up to the public the ancient, hereditary revenues of the crown, originated from the Throne. It was propofed to this House in the ufual mode by Mr. Legge, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. Parliament adopted the propofition, and it was accepted with gratitude by the King. The ministers of that time declared to this House the King's entire fatisfaction, and that his Majesty should be happy to be delivered from the disagreeable neceffity of ever applying to Parliament, like his predeceffors, to make good the deficiencies of the Civil Lift. It was admitted that the allowance was compétent, ample, moft fully adequate to the wants, and even to the fplen

dour

dour of the crown. Parliament granted all the Sovereign afked, and made the grant in the very mode propofed by the minifter. The Civil Lift Act exprefsly declares in the preamble, that 800,000l. per annum," was a

certain and competent revenue for defraying *the expences of his Majefty's Civil Government, and supporting the dignity of the

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crown of Great Britain." The nation thought themselves affured of not paying more than 800,ocol. per annum to the Civil Lift, and gave that fum chearfully for the trappings of royalty. In the Speech at the close of that feffion our gracious young Monarch told us from the Throne, that he could not fuficient y thank

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+ The fame dull, threadbare, vulgar expreffion, * I cannot fufficiently thank my faithful Commons,” is repeated in the King's Speech at the end of the Jaft feffion, June 6, 1777. "I cannot fufficiently thank

my faithful Commons for the zeal and public fpirit

with which you have granted the large and extraor"dinary supplies, &c, &c." Will there never be a Jufficiency of money from his faithful Commons to the King, or of thanks from the King to his faithful Commons, or are they both to proceed pari pofu till the poor people of this country find their unfaithful representatives have given away the very power of giving? The fufficiency of 1,760 did not fuffi e to 1769.

The

thank us, and that he thought himself much ob• liged to us for what more immediately concerned bimfelf. By this bargain, fir, with the public it was generally understood, and indeed admitted at that time, that his Majefty would be a gainer of near 7,000l. per annum. The noble Lord with the blue ribband has unfairly drawn his calculations from only the last eight years of the late King's reign. He ought to have taken the whole of that reign together. In fome years the Civil Lift was very deficient; in others it greatly exceeded the fum of 800,000l. As this is peculiarly a day of dry calculation, I will obferve that from the accounts delivered in to Parliament, it appeared, that in the 33 years of George the Second's reign, from Midfummer 1727 to Midfummer 1760, the Civil Lift produced only 25,182,9811. whereas 800,oool. for 33 years amounts to 26,400,cool. fo that, there is a deficiency of 217,019, The gain therefore on a net re

venue

The fufficiency of 1769 did not fuffice to 1777. How long will the fufficiency of 1777 fuffice? When will be the next demand, and of confequence the next grant of money from his faithful Commons, and of confequence the next "I cannot fuficiently thank my faithJul Commons?"