THE COST OF ROYALTY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3726, 25 June 1883, Page 4

THE COST OF ROYALTY.

A London letter says:—" From a recent parliamentary return it appears that there aro fifteen royal palaces for whicli the taxpayers of England havo to provide. Of these, however, only ono, namely, Windsor, can really be said to bo inhabited. AVhen the Queen is not thero she resides either at Osborne or Balmoral, which aro both her private property. Buckingham Palace, that huge pile of buildings in Hyde Park, which cost over £400,000 to build, is only used for a few days at a time for drawing-room concerts and other court gatherings. It is not inhabited by any of the royal princes, for whom special residences are provided at the public cost, in addition to their allowances of £25,000 a year. This year £8,000 has been expended on keeping up AVindsor, £2,000 on that antiquated and perfectly useless old structure known as St. James Palace, and nearly £1,000 on the stables of Hampton Court Palace. But besides these extra allowances the country is also asked to pay such items as £5,000 for tho kitchen garden at AVindsor, £150 for paving the royal cow-house, aud £125 for the Prince of AVales' gas bill. Then thero is a salary to a functionary known as the ' royal ratcatcher,' and another to the ' assistant keeper of the privy purse.' The most flu«-rant job of all is, however, connected with Marlborough Houso—the residence of the Prince of AVales. This house belonged for many years to the Churchill family. It was presented by a grateful nation to tho first Duke of MarlJborough, and was built at a cost of £40,000. AVhen tho first lease ran out it was re-let to another Duke of Marlborough £27_a : year. A third lease was obtained in 17So at a rental of £75, and thon the family sublet tho house at £3,000 annually. It was subsequently obtained for the Prince of Wales, and last year cost the country for ordinary repairs and maintenance over £2,900. As houses go in London such a sum seems incredibly evtravngant. It is items such as tho above which, occurring every year in the estimates, give point to the attacks of advanced Radicals like Bradlaugh nnd Labouchere. Tlic working classes in England now read the papers to a man, and moreover every householder and lodger who pays £10 a-year rent possesses a vote. Consequently there is a strong feeling gradually springing up among the people, who arc so sorely taxed, against the extravagant amount of the royal allowances. Whenever, for example, a royal princeling, be he ever so unimportant, crosses from Dover to Calais, ho requires a special steamer at a cost to the country of £40. Many persons aro also not a littlo disgusted at the allowano of £4,000 to bo made to tho Duko of Edinbughh for his visit to Russia. As a brother-in-law of the Czar he would have had to go at any rate, and at his own expense. As he goes to represent tho Queen all expenses are paid, and that at a rate exactly tenfold what was thought sufficient by the French Republic."