Show THE QUEENS INCOME lloyal athinis victoria derives from froin virlom ithe gentleman the allowance of a year for the privy purse is the carrying out of a commendable genera generosity ty with which a great cat nation treats its sovereign every want ant of tho so sovereign dereign is already y provided for she lias has houses bouses to live in in horses to ride food and wine provided in abundance servants all paid a year set aside for her d dispensa is pensa eions in charity and a small balance of over a year left for contingencies it will not ap appear car clear to the ordinary minds what channels of expenditure pend iture the queen finds for this allotted for the eriv privy purse ur but the question is thrust upon nt ahn h e public by the repeated demand f for or fresh supplies made on account of the royal fit family mily and the question is Is the tile civil list inadequate to the purpose of fully maintaining and slid supporting the children of the grown we have seen that every possible wan want t of the household is liberally provided for with a trifling sum of in supplement of for the privy purse but that by b y no means represents the private in income of the lady on behalf of whose children a fresh demand is now made on the taxpayer tax payer on the accession accession of her Ala majesty Jesty the civil list waa was arranged on the b basis asis described there was added as a sort of bonus the revenues of tl the le duchy af pf of Lanc linster this of course is is a national estate the property of the people but B u t it was Eesi bestowed owed upon the queen for her private use tise and benefit since its appropriation ip the revenues of the estate have more than doubled in 1847 the net revenues of the duch duchy y were in 1878 they had reached to and on dec 31 1880 the last date on which the accounts were published the net receipts i from this were all of which goes to the queen for lier her private use in addition to th these items there is a capital sum of a quarter of a malion which just thirty years ago a person named neil bequeathed to the queen for her personal use if from these data we attempt to we ascertain ertain the means at the tile disposal of her majesty for family objects we reach this conclusion civil list XGO duchy of lancaster 78 interest at per cent on the neild bequest this gives a total of a year for the spending of which anxious thought fails to di discover cover any possibility on the part of a lady living in the manner adopted bythe by alic queen the tile three items from which this total of the queens personal and private income is derived is set forth either as parliamentary estimates or in official documents the from llie the privy purse is the most familiar sum ministers of the crown and ether others who from their point of duty very properly endeavor to minimize facts are accustomed cus tomed to keep this figure in in the foremost as if it were the only source of the private income of tho the queen I quote the figures of the tile revenues of the tile duchy of lancaster from the balance sheet issued oli on the authority of the right honorable gentleman tic the chancellor of the agn duchy tic by As for the neild bequest the will of that eccentric legatee was proved in doctors commons bythe by the keeper of her Maje pr privy purse and other executors on october 1852 and the tile estate was sworn under but it would be an insult to common sense to suppose that these items compose tho tile full talo tale of the private income of the queen it is clear clea r that the amount allotted by parliament in 1837 for the maintenance of the royal ral household cannot be spent in t the c circumstances of the semi retirement in which it pleases the sovereign to live there must needs be year after year margreat car great savings in the various departments for which as we have seen special provision is is made with the object of ap appropriating pro i abing them to other accounts tina tirl has m been be going go ing on for twenty years and within that period the accumulated savings of the privy purse must have reached enormous proportions BT by ft a happy coincidence the su sum M abai available I able f for or appropriation tion in this natural manner would very very nearly meet the exigencies of the case ewe the tile princess royal draws a year y c a r the prince and princess of IN wales ales have between them I the duke of Edinburg prin aces helena princess louise ise a similar sum and prince leopold leepold these make a total of per year it is now proposed to add to prince leopolds which would bring the tile total demand upon the head of the family to a sum so near thai that available that there could be no difficulty in amicably adjusting the small balance in a family council it will bo be seen that such an arrangement could in in no way incommode e her majesty she would still have a year to spend put entirely out of account any interest from accumulated savings i s tl this is however an all kofl hand arrangement ran gement which it docs does nut not come within reasonable probability kosup pose would be adopt edor even sen seri aulsy discussed it would bo be eaid that it is none of our business and that we have no more right to interfere berf ere with the family arrangements of queen victoria than with those of our next asor neighbor this ia is quite true but it is equally tr true u e when the british taxpayer is asked for a fresh subsidy in in relief of family arguments that lie has the melancholy right to look into the matter in the same way as be might examine any other proposed business transaction |