LORD BROUGHAM ON THE CIVIL LIST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2329, 14 June 1887, Page 2

LORD BROUGHAM ON THE CIVIL LIST.

The Civil List is framed upon estimates laid before Parliament. It contains a statement, even to minute particulars, such as wages of servants, and of course the grant supposes such salaries are always paid. No supposition ever entered the mind of Parliament that large savings were to be effected out of the income granted, and aceumulatson of wealth in the hands of the Sovereign is ivvholly alien to the spirit of our Constitution, which requires the Monarch to be dependent upon Parliament for the revenue by which his state and dignity shall he supported. Accumulations by means of savings from the Civil List, impair the splendour and dignity of the Crown, and defeat the very purpose of the grant. Puliament, therefore, ought to be able to obtain information touching these savings, because if there were a deficit instead of a saving, Parliament, of course, would, be applied to for aid, whereas the public never can benefit by a surplus, and .the amount of such savings must form an important consideration when applications arise to establish younger branches of the Royal Family. There can be no indelicacy disclosing the amount of such savings which we suppose, on good grounds, have been effected; for the accounts before Parliament state that savings (eg. £38,750) have occurred for the year ending April, 1850, and this should be explained and set right ; and (independent of the Civil List revenue, and of £12,000 paid into the Privy-purso from the revenue of the Duchy of Lancaster) £29,000 have been paid from the revenue of the Duchy of Cornwall for the service of the Duke of Cornwall, whose tender age can hardly require so large a provision ! Parliament has a right fully to inquire into such an expenditure."