THE QUEEN'S INCOME.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 494, 22 April 1869, Page 3

THE QUEEN'S INCOME.

s The Dublin Evening Herald says e So much nonsense is constantly talked, f and such erroneous notions are held, t respecting the Queen's income that e it can hardly be considered a work of r supererogation to put the precise fact 3 i before the public. By an Act passed 1 soon after her Majesty's accession, in I which the Queen waives her right to , and interest in certain hereditary ) rates, duties, and revenues, which by her prerogative she might have claimed, ; the civil list—» e., he r income—is fixed . at £385,000 per annum. Many people have an idea that this sum is actually paid to the Queen every year. Such . is not the case. The civil list is divided into six classes, to each of which we will briefly refer. Class 1, really represents the amount of money paid to her Majesty for her private use, This amount is £60,000, which is payable in monthly instalments as long as her Majesty lives. Class 2, which appropriates £131,260, is for the payment of the salaries of her Majesty's household. This business is conducted by an official called the Paymaster of the Household; and when it is considered what a multiplicity of offices there are connected with the Court—from the lord of the bed-chamber to the page of backstairs—it can readily be imagined how easily the sum is expended. Class 3, appropriates a still higher sum of £172,500, and is for the expenses of the household. Royal house-keeping and Boyal parties and balls must be kept up on a Royal scale, and any one who has visited the Buckingham Palace mews and the Windsor stables—not to mention the Royal kitchen—will not wonder that this sum finds plenty of channels for its disposal. The amount of Class 4 is small, and its purposes are almost • entirely charitable. Out of the sum of £13,200, £9OO is devoted to the payment of what are termed "Royal awards." Grants from the Royal bounty fund, which are in the gift of the Premier, are generally made to distressed literary men or women, or to the necessitous relations of deceased military or naval officers, or to others * who have claims on the Go- " vernment. "Special service" covers extraordinary payments, such, for in- ] stance, as the award made to the officer who first landed in England with the Abysinian despatches from General " Napier. The alms or "Maundy" money, also come from Class 4, and to the amount of £2OOO are distributed by the Bishop of Oxford as Lord High Almoner. A further item of £l2oois devoted to the payments of distressed ladies. These payments as they fall , in through death, .are in the gift of the wife of the Prime Minister for the time being. Clause 5, consists of the I payments made as pensions to 'deserving literary and scientific persons, or to any that have deserved the gratitude of the country. The civil list pensioners rowamountto £l7,oo9after allowing for deaths. Class 6 may be regarded as a Rort of reserve fund. The amount of it is £SO4O, and it may be used towards meeting a deficiency '. in any of the other classes.