predecessor; and relinquished all claim to the surplus, which for the first eight years of his reign amounted, upon an average, to 100,000l. a year.1

Other sources

But the king enjoyed other sources of income, indepenHe derived a dent of Parliamentary control. of revenue. considerable amount from the Droits of the Crown and Admiralty, the 4 per cent. duties, and other casual sources of revenue in England. He was in possession of the hereditary revenues of Scotland; and of a separate Civil List for Ireland. He retained the rich Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. Mr. Burke estimated the total annual income of the Crown, from these various sources, at little less than a million; exclusive of the revenues of Hanover, and the Bishopric of Osnaburgh. During this long reign, the Droits of the Crown and Admiralty, and the casual revenues, which were wholly withdrawn from the cognizance of Parliament, amounted to the large sum of 12,705,4617.: out of which, however, he voluntarily contributed 2,600,000l. to the public service; while 5,372,8341. were appropriated as the expenses of captors, and payments to persons concerned in taking prizes. The surplus actually enjoyed by the Crown, after making these deductions amounted, therefore, to 4,732,6277.3 George III. also succeeded to 172,6057. which the late king, more frugal than any prince since Henry VII., had saved out of his Civil List.*

But great as were these revenues, the burdens on them Charges on were still greater. Places and pensions were the Civil List. multiplied, until the royal income was inadequate to provide for them. On the accession of George III., the greater part of the late king's household was retained; and, at the same time, numerous personal adherents of his Majesty were added to the establishment. But while

11 Geo. III. c. 1; Rep. on Civil List, 1815.

2 Present Discontents, Burke's Works, ii. 281.

8 Report on the Civil List, 1815; Hans. Deb. 3d Ser., 143.

4 Grenville Papers, iii. 144; Wraxall's Mem. ii. 55.

5 Walp. Mem i. 25.

the expenditure of the Civil List was increased, the king and his family were living, not only with economy, but even with unkingly parsimony. In 1762 he purchased Buckingham House, and settled it on the queen; "St. James's" according to Horace Walpole, "not being a prison strait enough."1 Here he lived in privacy, attended only by menial servants, and keeping up none of the splendor of a Court.2 "In all this," said Burke, "the people see nothing but the operations of parsimony, attended with all the consequences of profusion. Nothing expended-nothing saved. . . . They do not believe it to be hoarded, nor perceive it to be spent." a

secured by

expenditure.

While practising this apparent economy, the king was engaged in that struggle to increase the influence, Parliamentaand establish the ascendency of the Crown, which ry influence has been described elsewhere. The large expen- the Civil List diture of the Civil List could not fail, therefore, to be associated with the fidelity and subserviency of the court party in Parliament. The Crown was either plundered by its servants; or Parliamentary support was purchased by places, pensions, and pecuniary corruption.5

Debt upon

1769.

In February, 1769, before the king had yet been nine years upon the throne, the arrears of the Civil List amounted to 513,5117.; and his Majesty was the Civil List, obliged to apply to Parliament to discharge them. This demand was made at an untimely moment, when the people were exasperated by the persecution of Wilkes, when the policy of the court was odious, and the king him

1 Walp. Mem. i. 159.

2 The king continued this plain style of living throughout his reign. Wraxall's Mem., i. 8-10. Mr. 'Addington, writing to his brother, 29th Dec., 1804, said he had just partaken of the king's dinner, "which consisted of mutton chops and pudding." — Life of Sidmouth, ii. 342. Similar examples are to be found in Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, and in Madame D'Arblay's Memoirs.

8 Present Discontents, Works, ii. 280.

4 See Chapter I.

5 See Chapter VI.

self unpopular. But if the country was discontented, Parliament was held in safe subjection. Inquiry was demanded into the causes of the debt, and explanatory accounts were sought; but all investigation being resisted by ministers, the amount was granted without information. In the following year, motions for inquiry into the expenditure of the Civil List were renewed, with no better success.1 Lord Chatham avowed his conviction that the Civil List revenues were expended in corrupting members of Parliament; 2 and the Civil List expenditure, and the withholding from Parliament such an explanation of its causes, as had been customary in former reigns, formed a prominent topic in Mr. Burke's celebrated pamphlet on "The Causes of the Present Discontents."

But the same causes of excessive expenditure, — whatFurther debt ever they may have been,- continued without a in 1777. check; and after the lapse of eight years, the king was again obliged to have recourse to Parliament, not only to discharge a debt of 618,3407., but to increase his annual Civil List to 900,000l. a year. On this occasion, accounts explanatory of the arrears were laid before Parliament. Ministers no longer ventured to withhold them: but they were not deemed satisfactory by the Opposition. Again the causes of increased expenditure were freely animadverted upon in Parliament. The income of the king was compared with that of his predecessors, the large amount of secretservice money, and the increased Pension List were noticed, -and insinuations made of covert influence and corruption.s But Parliament acceded to the demands of the king. When the speaker, Sir Fletcher Norton, addressed

1 Parl. Hist. xvi. 843, 926; Walp. Mem. iii. 343; Rockingham's Mem. ii. 90, 167. The Duke of Richmond, writing to Lord Rockingham as to a division in the Lords, says: "The division of twenty-six on so courtly a point as paying his Majesty's debts, and enabling him to bribe higher, is, I think, a very strong one."- Rock. Mem. ii. 92.

2 Parl. Hist. xvi. 849.

8 Ibid., xix. 103, 160, 187; Walp. Mem. iv. 92.

the throne, on presenting the bill for the royal assent, he said, the Commons "have not only granted to your Majesty a large present supply, but also a very great additional revenue; great beyond example; great beyond your Majesty's highest expense." The speaker's uncourtly address became the subject of remark and censure in the House of Commons; but his friend Mr. Fox, having come to the rescue, he was thanked for expressing with "just and proper energy, the zeal of this House for the support of the honor and dignity of the Crown, in circumstances of great public charge." His conduct, however, was not forgiven by the court; and in the next Parliament, he was punished by the loss of the speaker's chair.2

1779.

Economic Re

Promptly as these demands of the Crown were met, they yet excited lasting dissatisfaction. The public Debates upon expenditure and the national debt had been pro- the Civil List, digiously increased by the American War, when the abuses of the Civil List were again brought under the notice of Parliament. In 1779 the Duke of Richmond moved an address to the Crown praying for the reduction of the Civil List, which was rejected by a majority of more than two to one. But a few days afterwards Mr. Burke's Mr. Burke gave notice of his motion on Economic scheme of Reform, with which his name has since been hon- form, 1780. orably associated. On the 11th of February, 1780, being fortified by numerous petitions, he propounded his elaborate scheme. This embraced a considerable reduction of offices, a diminution of expenditure, and improved administration and accounts in the various departments of the State; and in his masterly review, the expenditure of the Civil List attracted a large share of his scrutiny. Describing the royal household, he pointed out the social changes which had taken place, and the obsolete character of many of the offices which

1 Parl. Hist. xix. 227.

2 Wraxall's Mem. i. 372.

8 Dec. 7th, 1779; Parl. Hist. xx. 1255.

were still retained. "The royal household," he said, “has lost all that was stately and venerable in the antique manners, without retrenching anything of the cumbrous charge, of a gothic establishment."1 Examples of profusion and abuse were given, useless offices, and offices performed by deputy, the king's turnspit being a member of Parlia ment,2-jobbing, waste, and peculation in every department, without restraint. He proposed the reduction and consolidation of offices, the diminution of the Pension List to 60,000l. a year, and the payment of all pensions at the Exchequer.

Mr. Burke obtained leave to bring in five bills to carry out these various objects: but his Establishment Bill was the only one which was discussed in that session. It was read a second time, and several of its provisions were discussed in committee; but it was ultimately defeated by the Government. The discussions, however, led to a proposition from Lord North, for a Commission of Public Accounts. In the following year Mr. Burke resumed his efforts, and Mr. Burke's again obtained leave to bring in his Establishment Bill. In advocating this measure he was boldly supported by young William Pitt, who then first offered himself to the notice of Parliament. The Bill was lost on the second reading.5

Establish

ment Bill, 1781.

the Rockingham Ministry, 1782.

But a sudden change soon took place in the prospects of Measures of this question. Lord Rockingham's administration acceded to office, pledged to economic reform, and resolved to carry it into effect. Lord Rockingham, in laying his plan before the king, explained "that not a single article of the expense to be retrenched touches anything whatsoever which is personal to your Majesty, or to

1 Parl. Hist. xxi. 30.

2 Ibid. 33, and Lord Talbot's Speech in 1777; Ibid. xix. 176.

8 See Parl. Hist. xxi. 111, where it is printed at length.

4 lbid. xxi. 714.

5 Parl. Hist. xxi. 1292. Wraxall's Mem. ii. 333.