COST OF THE QUEEN'S HOUSEHOLD.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 924, 8 February 1872, Page 3

COST OF THE QUEEN'S HOUSEHOLD.

At Newcastle, on November G, Sir <C. W. Dilko, M.P.'for Chelsea, delivered a lecture to a crowded audience ■on " Representation and Royalty." After referring to the autumn manceu-; vres, the h'on baronet went on to say that, speaking roughly, tbe positive and direct cdst of Royalty to country is about a million a year. Ifc is worth remembering (be 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 atl taxes, assessments, and charges. It is strange with regard to the Queen's income that this should be the case, seeing that Sir Eobert Peel 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 sub- ' Ject all incomes to a certain charge, it Was her determination that her income •should be subjected to a similar burden. I have reason to believe that promise ' lag never beeri fulfilled. (Laughter and hisses.) I need hardly say that alltlia enormous sums of money are nAwell spent, and it is-'almost worth slew minutes' time to see in what find of manner they do contrive to disappear. The salaries in the Royal household, which amount to £131,000 a year, include a vast number of totally Useless officials. (Laughter.) Nothing is more singular than tho constitution of the medical department. You would hardly credit the. number of medical gentlemen who are required for the service of the household, but I am aware that some of them are unpaid. There are three physicians in wdiflary, three physicians extraordinary, one sergeant-surgeon extraordinary," Wo sergeant-surgeons, three surgeons extraordinary, one physician of the household, one surgeon apothecary, two chemists of the establishment in ordhiary, one surgeon-oculi9t, one s'urge&n dentist in ordinary, and one other physican—or 2l in all—(laughter)—while the Prince of Wales has for his own special benefit three honorary physicians, two physicians in I ordinary, two surgeons in ordinarjr, one surgeon extraordinary—(laughter) —one chemist hi ordinary, or eleven more—(loud laughter)—jmaking thirty two doctors in one family. (Laughter and applause.) I should be almost afraid of tiring anybody who listened to me while I went over the list of strange offices of which the household i,smadc up—lord high almoner, subalmoner, hereditary grand almoner, master o'f..tho buck-hounds, clerk of the check, clerk of the closet, exons in waiting, and last, but not lea«t, the hereditary grand falconer, the Duke of fit. .'Albans—(laughter)—who might, perhaps, with advantage, if he is to retain his salary of £ISOO a year be created hereditary grand pigeon shooter in ordinary. (Loud laughter.) If we turn to the lord steward's department, ■ no- came at once on a mysterious board of green cloth, 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 salaries in «ach of those sections of the department. (Laughter.) In the kitchen department we have a chief took and four master cooks receiving salaries of between £2OOO and £3OOO a year between the five; and a host of confederates, some of whom have duties that I could not even guess at—such for instance, as the two "Green Office" men. (Roars of laughter). There are whole departments, the duties of which cannot bo very considerable, one would think, or, at all events, not considerable enough to warrant their being made ato departments of tho household — for instance, the confectionery department, while the duty of table decking employs no less than five persons

(laughter), who have salaries of between £SOO and £6OO a year in all (hisses). Now I have said already that a great deal of this expenditure brings no benofit in any shape ,to members of the royal family, and that it is largely an expenditure on mere sinecures; but at the same time the expenditure could be curtailed. No one can doubt that the Queen might abolish those offices if she chose, and that if, as I beliove, 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 would gladly be given to the Treasury and the Crown,