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ries. He was the more induced to mention them with merited praise, as not many months ago it had been said in that House, that they were reluctant to give verdicts; and it had been insinuated that they favoured the bad principles of which they would not authorize the punishment. They had nobly replied to that insinuation. He meant to allude to no particular verdict when he said that they had shewn themselves equally unawed by the power of the Crown or the influence of popular feeling. Lord Holland, though he forebore any positive opposition, did not quite equal the courtesy of his two predecessors. If he concurred, as he was disposed to do, in this address, he must not be supposed to pay any compliment to the wisdom and energy of the last Parliament, or to retract any thing which had been said on certain subjects by noble lords on his side of the House. He conceived that some of the last acts of the late Parliament had been productive of nothing but mischief; and, if there was any improvement visible in the country since then, which he hoped might be found to be the case, it was by no means to be attributed to the operation of those acts.

In the Commons, Mr Tierney expressed his satisfaction at the fair, cool, and temperate tone taken by the mover and seconder of the address, and his entire concurrence in a great part of what had fallen from them. He congratulated the House on the prevailing unanimity: he hoped it was an earnest for the future, and that all parties in the House would unite in the expression of unshaken loyalty to the crown, and of a firm determination, while the true liberties of the people were supported, to set themselves honestly and steadily against those machinations alike directed against the happiness

and security of the Sovereign and his subjects.

The only discordant note was struck by Sir Francis Burdett, who complained of the want of courtesy shewn in not pursuing the wholesome practice of former times, when the speech was read from the cockpit on the day before the meeting of Parliament; they had thus leisure to deliberate on the subject. It appeared to him most extraordinary, especially in these times, to expect that members should, at the very first hearing, agree in whatever sentiments ministers thought fit to put into the mouth of the Sovereign. When a younger man, and when first this new practice was introduced, he had proposed on one occasion, that the consideration of the speech should be adjourned to the following day; in the present instance, however, he should be sorry even to make that proposition; but he begged, while he consented to the compliment on the commencement of a new reign, to guard himself against being supposed to concur in any of the sentiments of the address, excepting those of congratulation and condolencein short, in any thing that was not matter of mere and absolute form.

The address was carried nem. con. In the course of this debate, some interesting conversation took place between the Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Liverpool, on the subject of the existing commercial restrictions. The former nobleman sincerely hoped that our prohibitory system would soon be brought under the view of the legislature. While he indulged this hope-a hope entertained and indulged by others, it ought to be recollected that great firmness would be necessary to effect any change; that the application of general principles to our system of commerce, must be a work of great delicacy and

difficulty; that many partial interests must be encountered as obstacles, and that much immediate and partial distress must be incurred to establish a broad, general, and permanent system of national advantage and commercial freedom. To effect this, nearly as much courage and firmness would be requisite as in encountering the other difficulties of the country. Firmness, however, for that duty, he hoped, would not be wanting in the King's ministers-firmness, he hoped, would not be wanting in the Legislature; and he (Lord Lansdowne) pledged himself, whenever a relaxation of commercial restrictions-a great relaxation-was brought forward, he would lend it his utmost support.

To these observations Lord Liverpool returned a very guarded and cautious reply. This was a subject to which he and others of his Majesty's ministers had given no inconsiderable degree of attention. His own opinions upon it were well known to many most respectable individuals in the city, and he should be prepared to declare them to their lordships whenever a fit occasion offered. At the same time he wished to guard their lordships, and those more immediately concerned, from any delusion on the subject. As to whether more good or more evil resulted from the operation of the present system, he would not now say; but perhaps, in some of the general principles respecting it, he did not differ from the noble marquis, though they might not agree in the minor detail. Not that by this he meant to convey that something might not be done, and some alterations might not be made; but their lordships would admit, that it was a subject which should be approached coolly and dispassionately, and that too much should not be expected from its first agitation.

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As soon as these customary preliminaries were adjusted, it was understood that the first and most important object which would occupy the attention of the new Parliament would be the settlement of a civil list. It was the established usage of England, that, at the accession of a monarch, the amount of this branch of revenue should be settled for life. This arrangement, however, could not well, and in fact did not, bar any augmentation which might become necessary during the altered circumstances of a long reign. In fact, the great rise in the value of all commodities which took place during that of George III., could scarcely fail to occasion continual arrears, and to call for successive additions. These, however, were not granted without serious murmurs and disputation. In 1815 and 1816, a strict investigation took place into all the departments of the regal expenditure; and an amount was fixed, somewhat augmented indeed, but applied under such rigorous checks as seemed to secure against any future misapplication. The result was, that under this new system, the accumulation of arrears ceased; the revenue was found sufficient to cover the expenditure; and the King in his opening speech could announce, that he asked no more than had been enjoyed by the Crown for the last four years. A statement so unusual was expected by ministers to diffuse general satisfaction, and to shut the mouths of their opponents. The latter,' however, were too much on the alert, to lose this opportunity of probing into certain anomalies, which, though sanctioned by long usage, appeared inconsistent with that rigid control to which it was now proposed to subject this branch of the public expenditure.

In consequence of a motion of Sir Henry Parnell, on the 3d May, the

report of 1815 on the civil list was ordered to be reprinted. Mr Tierney, however, seemingly with some reason, treated this measure as very nugatory, since the question would be set at rest before gentlemen had that report in their hands. They were to decide first, and have the report afterwards.

As a supplement to this proceeding, Mr Hume moved a return of the expenditure from the 5th January 1815, to the 5th January 1820. He was particularly anxious that the payments should be classified. No less than an expense of 600,000l., totally exclusive of the civil list, was incurred by the civil expenditure. From the accession of his late Majesty, up to the period to which the report of 1815 extended, the money voted by the House of Commons, in aid of the civil list, amounted to 53,000,000l. but nearly 9,000,000l. had been paid from the consolidated fund, on account of items separated from the civil list, and, strictly speaking, forming a portion of that list at the accession of George III. They could not, therefore, know what the exact amount of the civil list was, unless they had before them the six classes into which the payments were divided. They would then be able to decide on the alterations that should be made. He considered it quite an anomaly that the right honourable gentleman who filled the chair should be paid from the second class of the civil list the sum of 1500l., and that another source should be applied to in order to complete his income. The payment of the salary of every individual should be simplified. As the establishment of 1816 was formed on a scale the most extravagant that had been known since the settlement of the civil list, the House ought to inquire, whether the two acts, ordering

a return to be made to the House when any excess took place, had been complied with. He was not sure that such a return had been made, and he thought there could be no objection to its being produced.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed the motion. The act of 1816 required, that, if there were an additional charge on the civil list exceeding the estimate by the sum of 16,000l., an account of such exceeding was to be laid before Parliament. Now no such return had been made; and if the honourable gentleman thought that the Act of Parliament had been violated, let him bring his charge forward, and ministers would be ready to meet it. He was now prepared to say, that since the passing of the act of 1816 the issue had been regular, and no excess whatsoever had taken place. MrHuskisson, moreover, urged, that the right of calling on ministers, under all circumstances, to produce accounts which the honourable gentleman seemed to think existed, was a new doctrine in Parliament. If there were no excess, (which must be inferred, as no return was made,) and if no demand were made for assistance, he could see nothing, consistently with the course pursued by Parliament at all times, that authorised the honourable gentleman to call for a detailed account of the application of those revenues which Parliament had granted for the support of his Majesty's household. The arrangement of 1816 accomplished that which had not been before accomplished. The regulations adopted at that period provided new checks, by which the whole expense of every department, in each class, was to be kept within the estimate agreed to by Parliament. It had been so confined; and that being the case, the honourable gentleman was in possession of

all the information that was necessary for any proceeding with reference to the establishment of a new civil list. Let him take the estimate as it now stood, and rest assured that the expenditure was kept within its bounds. Mr Tierney indeed replied: They were not now dealing with a civil list actually in being-they were called on de novo, to make a civil list; and in doing that, his honourable friend asked for such information as would enable him to decide on what was proper to be given. His honourable friend wanted further information he wished to know whether all the money granted to support the civil list had been expended. Parliament might have voted too little, or it might have granted too much.

Some farther conversation took place, in the course of which Lord Milton declared, he very much doubted whether the situation of the country was such as to justify the House in forming a permanent establishment at all. Such a revolution had taken place in the currency of the country, that no man could say what was the real value of a pound-note. But when the question came to the vote, it was negatived by a majority of 113 to 50. Several other motions of a similar nature met the same fate.

Mr Hume followed up these motions by another on the following day, respecting the revenues of Gibraltar. By accounts which had been laid on the table, it appeared, that a sum of 124,2517. had been sent over to this country in the course of the last sixty years, affording an annual receipt of about 20701. for the same period, and had gone into the King's privy purse. The appendix to the third report shewed that the sum actually so received amounted, during the last four years, to 40321. per annum. There

could be little doubt, in his opinion, that the Crown was not authorised to

levy taxes for its own private use, by means of a colonial secretary; and that every individual so employed on the part of the Crown was guilty of a misdemeanor, as well as of a breach of the privileges of that House. According to the original charter in 1705, no duty or imposition whatever was to be laid on vessels or merchandize entering that port. This immunity was of great benefit to the trade of that place; and even in 1794, the amount of taxes did not exceed 40007. It appeared very surprising, therefore, that it should now fall very little short of 50,000l. General Don had laid on taxes of his own authority, by mere proclamation. Mr H. complained also of prodigality in the civil government of the place, and of oppression to the Roman Catholic inhabitants.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not mean to oppose the production of the returns; at the same time he thought it unfair, in merely moving returns, to introduce attacks on individuals, of whose conduct the House had yet no means of judging. With regard to the right of the Crown to a revenue raised in Gibraltar, he apprehended, that, on a clear principle of the law of nations, the rights which were before vested in theCrown of Spain, were by conquest transferred to the Sovereign of Great Britain. He should, however, enter into no defence until the papers were on the table. Sir James Mackintosh urged, however, seemingly with reason, that he could not conceive any principle of the law of nations which bore out the assertion that the power vested in an absolute prince became, in case of conquest, equally vested in a king whose power was not absolute.

The papers were voted.

By much the warmest discussion, however, of those preliminary to the debate on the civil list, arose out of

Mr Brougham's motion relative to certain duties, particularly those termed the droits of Admiralty, which were held as the private domain of the Crown. Mr Brougham began with protesting, that nothing could be farther from his mind than any intention of compassing the degradation of the royal dignity, or even of abridging those rights which were the rights and privileges of the Crown, in any one the most minute point, not only of what might be deemed necessary in supporting its weight in the constitution, but of those also which were necessary to its dignity and just splendour. If at any one period of our history it would have been next to criminal to have endeavoured to deprive the executive government of that which was requisite to its own maintenance and honour and without honour it could not be maintained-it would be altogether criminal to attempt such a measure in times like the present. He desired the support of no gentleman to the resolution with which he intended to conclude, but upon the previous performance of this condition by himself that he should prove to the satisfaction of all who voted with him, that the measure he should propose was not only safe but expedient-that it not only did not degrade the Crown, but that it manifestly tended to augment its dignity. He then laid it down as an old and confirmed maxim of our constitution, sanctioned by the opinions of the greatest lawyers, both of the bench and of the bar, supported by the whole current of the most venerable authorities, that the Crown, as such, was incapable of possessing separate property. Mr B. then quoted examples to shew, that even funds to which the Crown possessed the most undisputed right, as treasure-trove, old stores, &c., could not be disposed otherwise than under the privy seal of

the realm. In this view he strongly condemned the Act brought in by Mr Pitt in 1799, by which the Sovereign and his heirs were enabled to have property, and to deal with it as their own. This act empowered the King not only to dispose of his crown lands, but to expend all the money he might be able to amass in the purchase of new property of all kinds, which, like a common private individual, he might burden or sell again at a profit-might give away in rewards to favourites-might dispose of even to enemies-or, pro tanto, set ting the votes of Parliament at defiance, might defeat the whole system and policy of the constitution. It enabled him even to hold copyholds, and thus to become the tenant of his own subject. In ancient times, out of these funds belonging to itself, the Crown was bound to carry on various departments of the public service. Thus, for the Droits of Admiralty, which then included only wrecks, stranded fish, and other trifles, the King was bound "to keep the narrow seas clear of pirates." An inevitable change of circumstances had thrown this, with other duties, upon the general revenue of the country. Yet, extraordinary as it might seem, though the King paid nothing towards the defence of his subjects, nothing towards driving pirates from the seas, nothing towards the "tuition and good government of the realm," (as it was worded in the statute of Henry VIII.) he still kept the whole amount of his revenues from the Droits of Admiralty, amounting in the last reign to no less than 13,700,000l. Contrary to the opinion of several of his friends, he thought a compensation due to the Crown; the strict letter of the law would here, in his opinion, be the height of injustice. He thought the mode of dealing with the Church of England in respect to tithes, a pre

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