QUEEN VICTORIA’S WEALTH.

Kumara Times, Issue 262, 7 August 1877, Page 2

QUEEN VICTORIA’S WEALTH.

The Washington Capitol says}— “ What Queen Victoria leaves behind her will never be known, because the wills of sovereigns are not proved, but those who have carefully considered the subject are of opinion that she must, since the Prince Consort’s death, have saved at the very least £IOO,OOO a year. Not only has she lived so quietly that a large proportion of her £385,000 a-year public income must be saved, but it is to be remembered thstj Mr Nield left her £500,000, which at font per cent, would give her £20,000 a year, and she receives £43,000 a year from her Duchy of Lancaster. The Crown lands, given up to the country in lieu of a Parliamentary annual grant, have of late years been so ably and economically managed that their revenue covers the royal allowance, and these Crown lands were as mnohsho property of the sovereigns as the lands of the Duke of Devonshire, or any other land-holder, are his. If the country chose to make the most of these lands by cutting np, say, the New Forest, and selling it in lots, and ad* opting a similar plan with other outlying possessions of the Crown, it would make money out of the royal family. The revenue of the. Duchy of Cornwell has risen from £22,000 in 1842 to £72,000, and increases annually about £3OOO, so that the next Prince of Wales will probably be independent of a Parliamentary grant. Queen Victoria is probably saving with the view of rendering her family as independent as the wealth of the Duke de Penttnevre rendered the House of Orleans, and made Louis Philippe, in consequence, the cheapest ofFrench kings.”