On the 3d of May, Lord Castlereagh made a motion for leave to bring in a bill for the better regulation of his majesty's civil list. The subjects involved in the regulation of this mea sure, were," as his lordship observed, "of the most delicate nature; nevertheless, a variety of causes,-and, among these, not the least effectual, the liberties which had recently been taken by some gentlemen of the opposition, in talking of the personal habits of the royal family, rendered it absolutely necessary that the feelings calculated to make his majesty's ministers avoid their discussion, should be overcome. In his introduction, the minister reprobated the vulgar error of supposing the whole, or even the greater part of the demands upon the civil list, to arise out of the private expenditure of the sovereign and his family, while, in truth, much the larger part of them were as strictly caused by the necessities of the public service, as any of the grants annually made for the army or the navy. If the expences thrown on the country by the unhappy state of the nominal sovereign should be deducted from the annual expence of the civil list, it would not exceed 1,339,000l. and of this sum only 409,000l. could

During this period the revenues of the civil list, as he had already stated, were unequal to satisfy the demands they were intended to meet. In the seven years up to 1811, their average amount, under the settlement of 1804, was 995,000l. Since that period, from various circumstances, they had been swelled to 1,060,000l. It would be seen that the revenue, in the course of the seven years, had fallen short by about 1,000,000l. ; and since that period the deficiency had considerably increased. On the face of this statement it would appear that there was a

tendency in the settlement which had been made of the civil list to create debt. If the House looked to the eports of all the committees which had been appointed to inquire into this subject, it would be found, that every one of them had uniformly pronounced that the estimate of 1804 had been completely inadequate to its object, and was not in fact borne out either by those circumstances which had preceded, or by those which followed it. On all hands, the insufficiency of the civil list income had been allowed, and the augmentation of it had only been delayed on account of those casual aids derived from the war, of which he had already spoken. The gross amount of the debt which had accrued on the civil list since 1804, was 2,500,000l. The liberality of parliament had granted in discharge of that sum 762,000l. An advance made by the Crown from its West Indian revenues, and from the surplus of the Scotch civil list, to the amount of 1,738,0002. had still further reduced the debt. During the same period, it was to be recollected that the Crown out of the same funds (in the year 1807, he believed,) had advanced the sum of 1,000,000l. for the service of the public, to meet the supplies of the year. If, instead of doing that, the Crown had applied this sum of one million to the discharge of the debt on the civil list, so far from having occasion to apply to parliament for assistance, that sum would have more than covered the whole of the remaining debt, and would have effectually prevented the inconvenient presEure which it had experienced. But it was not merely this sum of 1,000,000. which had been advanced in 1807, that had been furnished for the public service, by the liberal consideration of the Crown-in the course of the war the sum of 2,800,000. had been thus appropriated. These facts would go to prove, that if the Crown had been

in possession of its former revenues, it would not have had occasion to approach parliament for any assistance."

The second object of his lordship's speech, was to give a perspective view of the probable future expenditure of the civil list, with a consideration of the adequacy of the funds appropriated to it, and the most economical method of augmenting them. The esti mate which he thought might be made, was 1,339,195., presenting, when compared with that of last year, (larger, of course, as being made during war), a reduction of 139,000. Should this be deducted from this sum, (as Lord Castlereagh judged would be just and proper,) the 170,000l. occasioned by the Windsor establishment, the privy purse, and the allowance to her majesty, in consequence of the state of the king, the estimate would be reduced to 1,169,495. To this he thought no objection could be made, as it was precisely the medium between the charges that had occurred on the civil list between 1804 and 1811.

With regard to the proper mode of meeting the future expenditure of the civil list, as thus estimated, he thought that parliament must either increase the general allowance, for that service, by the 65,000l., which had been for the seven years up to 1811, the annual excess of its expenditure, and by a sum adequate to cover the Windsor establishment extraordinary, or withdraw from it certain charges which would relieve it to the necessary extent. The latter plan he recommended for their adoption. He thought nothing could be more unwise than to entail fluctuation in the expenditure of the civil list, by loading it with charges of a public nature, from their very essence so changeable. The charges which he wished to see removed from it were then particularized, (they consisted of various items connected with all the branches of public service,) and the

relief to be afforded by their removal, was stated at 255,7687., being within a few thousand pounds of what he had described as necessary.

His lordship concluded with detailing certain prospective regulations which would be necessary for upholding the proper splendour of the crown, The principal topic in this part of the detail was the necessity of a new officer, who should act as the representa. tive of the treasury in the superintendance of the whole civil list expenditure; who should have all facility of communicating with the different departments, and of calling the officers before him and inspecting their accounts; and who should thus be ena bled to controul extravagance in every point, and to make proper represent ations to the treasury whenever he should see occasion. His lordship proposed, that the salary annexed to this office should be 1500l.

On the 6th of the month, Mr Tierney entered into a long and detailed examination of the various accounts submitted to the House by the ministers, in order to guide their judgment respecting the civil list bill. The charges of extravagance and profusion which he brought against almost every department of these, were answered, chiefly by statements of detail, by Lord Castlereagh and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Upon the whole, it would seem that the attacks made on the personal expenditure of the Regent were by no means merited by the late conduct of that prince; that his situation, as it was one with out precedent, so it might have occasioned some expences (such as building, &c.) a little out of the ordinary course, but that, on the whole, he had been endeavouring, and that successfully, to suit his expence to the situa tion of the country. In the end, the bill of Lord Castlereagh was carried

through both Houses by a large majority.

The same charges made by the opposition against the civil list, were, on various occasions during the session, brought against various other depart ments of the public expence. One of the most conspicuous of these occa. sions was that on which Mr Tierney brought forward his motion with regard to the offices of the secretaries of state, According to the view given by this member, the old establishment of two secretaries of state had been increased by the addition of a third in the year 1794, solely on account of the war; and that having ceased, the officer created on account of it should, he alleged, be immediately disconti nued. In reply to these observations, Mr Golbourn and Mr Addington stated, that the immense additional labour which had, within the last 20 years, become necessary in the management of our colonies, had alone been more than enough to justify the creation of an additional secretary.

The personal and bitter recriminations lavished by the two partiesagainst each other upon this occasion need not be embodied in the annals of the time. The increase which has obviously taken place in our population and in our power, seems to afford some presumption, that the labours of another great state officer might not be unnecessary. We believe that, in the midst of all the zeal of their debates, no charge of idleness was brought against any of the persons actually filling any of these high and responsible situations. From the statement given by Mr Addington, it would appear, that even the toils of professional men, active and eager in their professions, admit of greater intervals of repose, and demand, during their continuance, a less intense application, than the exertions of the persons filling these high official

situations, which, in our country, are never adequately rewarded, except by the honour of worthily discharging them. The House rejected the motion of Mr Tierney by a large majority. A similar attack was made by Mr Methuen upon certain regulations, whereby the salaries of the secretaries and clerks of the admiralty had been kept up at the rate of war salaries after the conclusion of the war. Lord Castlereagh alleged, that when the peace with America was concluded, the period of reduction might have been supposed to be arrived, but that the subsequent re-appearance of Buonaparte had demanded new hostilities, and new labours on the part of the officers in question, and had consequently rendered the continuance of their salaries at the war rate not only reasonable but indispensable. At a subsequent period of the session, how ever, it was declared by Mr Warrender, that there was no intention on the part of government of moving for any permament continuance of the salaries of the admiralty secretaries at the rate allowed during the war.

Another debate of a similar character occurred on the 7th of May, when Lord Althrope made a motion on the subject of the increase of, or diminution of, the salaries of public of ficers. His lordship mentioned, that this important subject was in the hands of a committee appointed by the treasury, but that he was of opinion that no progress had been made by them in removing the grounds of public discontent, and that, therefore, the matter would be better in the hands of a committee of the whole House. The Chancellor of the Exchequer entered into a long detail of facts, with a view to prove that the charge against ministers was unfounded, and that the matter was already in excellent hands.

The motion was lost by a majority of 43.

Several important financial debates occurred this session, in consequence of the public transactions with the Bank, the nature of which, and the alleged grounds of suspicion concerning them, were in some measure explained in our last volume.* It will be recollected, that Mr Grenfell and Mr Mellish moved two counter sets of resolutions, stating their respective views concerning the state of the pub. lic transactions with the Bank, and that the House agreed to take up the discussion of both upon the same occasion.

The production of the accounts ordered towards the close of last session had not, in any measure, altered the opinion then expressed by Mr Grenfell respecting the unequal nature of the transactions with this immense corporation. On the 14th of March he made a long and most elaborate speech, which terminated in a recapitulation of the advantages gained to the Bank, and of the corresponding loss to the public, arising out of the possession by the Bank of the public balances since 1806, assuming the ag gregate amount during the whole of this period to have been about eleven millions and a half. According to this statement, in 1806, the Bank advanced a loan of three millions to the public, at three per cent., which reduced the aggregate amount of the deposits from eleven millions and a half to eight millions and a half.

The interest op eight millions and a half, is, per

annum......

To which add interest on the loan of three mil lions.........

Together.....

£425,000

90,000 515,000

From 1808 then, to 1814, the-Bank held a treasure belonging to the public of five millions and a half, and made a profit, or the public lost in interest of money thereon, at the rate of 365,000l. per annum.

In 1814, the loan of 1806 was discharged, and the amount replaced in the possession of the Bank, by which the aggregate amount of deposits was again raised from five millions and a half to eight millions and a half. The interest on this is, per annum, 425,000, "From 1814, then," said Mr Gren "fell, to the 5th April, 1816, the Bank will have held a public treasure of eight millions and a half, and we shall have been paying to the Bank at the rate of 425,000l. per annum, for taking care of it."

In return for this large annual sum of 425,000l., it is fair, continued he, that we should enquire what services are rendered to the public by the Bank. From every enquiry that he had been able to make, it appeared to him to be demonstrable, that the services rendered by the Bank to the public were exactly of the nature of those rendered

to any gentleman by his private banker, they should therefore be paid at the same rate. Were it possible that any competition should occur as to the management of the public business, he was satisfied that any respectable banking house in London would willingly undertake to do what the Bank of England does, for 25,000l. per annum, thus making a saving of nearly half a million to the public.

In addition to the immense gains derived by the Bank from the interest of the public balances, another great branch of their profits arises from the allowance possessed by them for managing the national debt. This allowance had been fixed by Sir Robert Walpole, in 1726, at 360l. per million, an allowance, as Mr Grenfell believed, perhaps not too much at the commencement of the business; but the subsequent immense increase in the amount of the national debt had by no means, he alleged, been attended with any thing like a corresponding increase of trouble to the Bank; on the contrary, the profits derived to them at a time when the debt exceeded ten hundred millions, must have been far beyond the contemplation of those who lived when it did not exceed two hundred millions, while a very small increase of establishment would be sufficient for managing the additional business occasioned by it. From motives unintelligible to the government, however, Mr Pitt had, in 1791, allowed the Bank 4504, instead of 360l. per million. This allowance had, in consequence of the labours of the finance committee of 1797, been reduced by Mr Percival in 1808 to 340l. per million, at which sum it now stood, but below which he had no doubt it ought to be still very far reduced. Various other items were enumerated by Mr Grenfell, in each and all of which he was of opinion an undue advantage was taken of the public by the monopoli