SIR C. DILKE ON THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1091, 26 January 1872, Page 3

SIR C. DILKE ON THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD.

At Newcastle, on the 6th November, Sir C. W. Dilke, M.P. for Cheshire, delivered a lecture to a crowded audience on " Representation and Royalty." After referring to the autumn manoeuvres, the hon. baronet went on to Bay that, speaking roughly, the positive and direct cost of Royalty to this country is about a million a year. It in worth remembering, he continued, that the Royal Family are the only persons in the kingdom who pay no taxes ; and even those annuities which we have lately granted are expressly freed from all taxes, assessments, and charges. It is strange with regard to the Queen's income that this should be the case, seeing that Sir Robert Feel stated to the House of Commons, when about to introduce the Income Tax Bill in 1842, that her Majesty, "prompted by those feelings of deep and affectionate interest in the welfare of her people which she has ever manifested, stated to him that if Parliament should subject all incomes to charge, it was her determination _J»*t her own income should be subjected ■■d a similar burden." I have reason to Wbelieve that promise has never been fulVjUled. (Laughter and hisses.) I need hardly say that all these enormous sums of money are not well spent, and it is almost worth a ! few minutes time to see in what kind of manner they do contrive to disappear. The salaries in the Royal household, which amount to L 131,000 a year, includes a vast number of totally useless officials. (Lalughter,) Jifothingis Sore singuhir than the constitution of ie medical department. You will hardly credit the number of medical gentlemen who are required for the service of the household, nut I am aware that some of them are unpaid, There are three physicians in ordinary, three physicians extraordinary, one sergeant-surgeon extraordinary, two sergeant - surgepns, three surgeons extraordinary, one physipian of the household, pne surgeon of the house? hold, one surgeon-apothecary, tiro chemists of the establishment in ordinary, one surgeon-oculist, one surgeon-dentist in ordinary, and one other physician— or twenty-one in all— (laughter)— while the Prince of Wales has for his special benefit three honorary physicians, two physicians fa ordinary, two sturgeons in ordinary, one surgeon extraordinary-r-(laughter)— ope chemist in ordinary, or eleven more— (loud laughter)— making thirty-two doctors in one family, (Laughter and applause,) I should be almost afraid pf taring anybody who listened to me while 1 went over the list of strange offices of which the household is made up ■»lord high almoner, Bub-almoner, hereditary grand almoner, master of the buckhounds, clerk of the check, clerk of the ojoset, exong in waiting, and last, but not least, the hereditary graud falconer, the Pake of St Albans— (laughter) — who might, perhaps, with advantage, if he is to retain his salary of LISOO a year, be created hereditary grand pigeon-shooter in ordinary. (Loud laughter.) If we turn to the lord steward's department, we come at once upon a mysterious board of green cloth, as it<is called, at the head of which are the lord steward, the treasurer, the comptroller of the household, and the master of the household, with a perfect army of secretaries and clerks, and with special secretaries with special offices with special salaries in each of those sections of the department. {Laughter.) ' i D the jcitchen department we pave a 'phief coo£ and four faster copks, receiving salaries, of between L2OOO and L3feoo a : year be? the five, and a hpst of confederates! •some of whom have duties that I cannot guess atrrsuch, for instance, as th.c « Green. Office' 1 men. (i^oars of ■*■ laughter.) There are whole departments \hff dqtieg pf which' cannot bpvejy considerable, one would think, or, at all events, not considerable enough to warrant their being made into departments of the household — for instance, the confectionery department and the ewer, department, while the duty of table-decking employs no less than five persons — (laughter)— who have salaries of between LSOD and L6OO a year in all. (Hisses.) Now, I have said already that a great deal of this expenditure brings no benefit in any shape to members of the Royalfamily, and that it is largely an expenditure upon mere sinecures ; but at the same time the expenditure could be curtailed. No one can doubt that the Queen might abolish these offices if she chose, and that if, as I believe, she has no right to abolish them and take over the consequent savings to her own use. Parliamentary powers for the abolition of the offices— taking the saving to the public — would gladly be given to the Treasury and the Crown.