which cost America £46,000 a year cost Old England £900,000. Why this difference? Are not Americans governed as well as Englishmen? Are not their fleets and armies commanded; their laws administered; their affairs abroad as ably conducted? Why again then we ask this difference? Has America been less prosperous than England? Compare their history for the last twenty-five years. Look at the increase in American population, her mercantile navy, and her agriculture. Compare their present situation. Look at poor England, sinking under her ponderous legal state and ecclesiastical establishments. Look at her two millions of paupers, her famishing artizans, and her ruined commerce and agriculture. Gracious heaven! * This sum, as well as the salaries of Foreign Ministers, allowance for outfit, and house-rent, are taken from Lord Castlereagh's Estimate on the 3d of May, 1816. + We have only inserted the English Ministers at those places where the Americans have likewise an Ambassador. The total cost of Foreign Ministers, according to the estimate of Lord Castlereagh, is as follows: His lordship's famous embassy alone cost considerably more than the whole diplomatique corps of America, and Mr. Canning's celebrated mission to Lisbon nearly as much. Civil List Expenditure during the Regency. are men to be termed seditious because they complain of this heart-rending contrast? Are they to be termed incendiaries, anarchists, and revolutionists, because they exclaim to a patient and suffering people-"There! there is the cause of your privations! Look at the cost of your Kings, your Princes, your Chief Justices, your Lord Chancellors, your Bishops, your Judges, and your Foreign Ministers; it is they who devour the food of your children, who reap the reward of your industry and the profit of your commerce and manufactures!" Ought such a state of things to continue? Is it possible that such a system of iniquity, extravagance, and folly, can stand against the knowledge and misery of a whole kingdom? Would any just or sensible man wish to see it perpetuated? Would he wish to see the horrible privations of millions protracted, that an unfeeling and contemptible minority may wallow in luxury and profusion? Would he wish to see the country always kept rocking on the brink of despair, despotism, or revolution? Sometimes a few months of quiet and apparent prosperity; then again embarrassment and distress, and the flame of discontent, stimulated by famine and injustice, bursting out anew, and the whole country exhibiting the dangers and uncertainties of a -state of nature, rather than of law and government. This has been the condition of England for years. Anarchy, revolution, or even despotism, would be preferable. It is neither life nor death, but infinitely worse than either; exhibiting the lingering tortures of national disease, without the ordinary comfort in affliction of either cure or annihilation. The cost of royalty is a fact, on which the reader ought carefully to fix his attention. There is no part of the constitution more corrupted and diverted from its original object, not even the representative, than the executive part of the government. Formerly the Sovereign received his salary for real services to the state. He commanded the army, administered the laws, and took care of his own revenue. Those functions are now delegated to others, who again delegate them to their subalterns, forming a multiplication of office and expense unknown to preceding ages. The Prince, instead of being the most important, is rendered the most insignificant officer in the state; his existence is hardly identified with any one operation of government. With the people he has no point of contact or communion. He lives secluded from their sight and knowledge. Even the ordinary act of royal condescension of receiving their petitions is now delegated to his secretary; and they are only reminded of the existence of the great personage as the Athenians were of the devouring Minotaur, by the annual sacrifice of what they hold most dear to his rapacity. Civil List Expenditure during the Regency. A variety of statements connected with a full exposition of the Civil List Expenditure we have reserved to the end of the article. They will be more convenient for reference collected under one head, than distributed through the preceding observations. The first papers we shall insert contain an estimate of various charges on the Civil List, as laid before Parliament on the 3d of May, 1816, preparatory to the passing of the Civil List Regulation Bill. FIRST CLASS. The ANNUAL CHARGE upon the CIVIL LIST in respect of allowances to the Lord Chancellor, Speaker of the House of Commons, Judges, &c. Justices of the Court of Great Session in Wales 2400 Total £32,955 SECOND CLASS. The ANNUAL CHARGE upon the CIVIL LIST in respect of the bills of his Majesty's tradesmen in the departments of the Lord Steward, Lord Chamberlain, Master of the Horse, Master of the Robes, and Surveyor General of Works. * A great part of the charge in this department is transferred to the Civil Contingencies. † This sum was the estimated charge for repairs and alterations at the several royal palaces, &c. at Kew, Kew-House, Richmond, Queen's Palace, Carlton House, Mews, Kensington Palace and Garden, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, House and Park, and St. James's Palace. It was provided that in the event of any new buildings being undertaken, or extensive repairs, an estimate was to be submitted to Parliament previous to the commencement of the work. Civil List Expenditure durtng the Regency. THIRD CLASS. The ANNUAL CHARGE upon the CIVIL LIST, in respect of the salaries, compensations, and superannuation-allowances, in the departments of the Lord Steward, Lord Chamberlain, Master of the Horse, Master of the Robes, and Surveyor-General of Works; also for the salaries of several other officers of his Majesty's household. DEPARTMENT OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL OF WORKS. ...... 1080 0 0 The ANNUAL CHARGE upon the CIVIL-LIST, in respect of salaries and fees of sundry public officers, and annuities and payments for various purposes. Lord President of the Council £ s. d. 4000 0 0 250 0 0 |