vil Government, and even to the accommodation of the two Houses of Parliament; so that of £.393,000, the total charge of this branch of the Lord Chamberlain's department, no less than £.117,000 appear to have belonged to services of this nature.

A very great proportion of this inerease is unquestionably to be accounted for, in this, as in the former instance, by the gradual advance of prices.

Much of the expense of the Lord Chamberlain's department appears to be incurred by articles furnished at the specific requisition of individuals inhabiting the Royal palaces; and although it appears that these articles are not furnished without certain checks, established within the household, in order to prevent unnecessary issues; yet the very great increase that has in fact taken place, induces the Committee to recommend most earnestly, that not only those who have immediate superintendence of this branch of the civil list expenditure should keep a strict watch over it, but that the commissioners of the Treasury should regularly and frequently inspect the state and progress of this varying charge, with a view to limiting its amount.

2. The estimate for the Lord Steward's department was settled in 1804, at £.75,000, which, for the whole seven years, would amount to 2.525,000. The actual charge has een £.737,000, exceeding the estinate by £.212,000, upon the whole eriod, or by £.30,000, annually.

The average expense of the Lord Steward's department in 1801, 1802, nd 1803, was £.84,000, and it is to e observed further with respect to he estimate of 1804, that in no one f the 9 years preceding that year, was he expenditure so low as £.75,000.

Upon this comparison then the anual exceeding appears to be £.21,000, stead of£.30,000.

A sudden excess in this depart

ment in the early part of the period, appears to be caused by the removal of their majesties to Windsor Castle, the Installation, and the residence of the royal family at Weymouth, and allowances in kind furnished to certain of the younger branches of the royal family, which ceased in 1806, when the parliamentary allowances to their royal highnesses the dukes of Clarence, Kent, Sussex, and Cam bridge, were augmented by one-half.

The continual increase of expense in this department is, without doubt, to be referred, in a very great degree, to the general advance of prices in all the articles of consumption.

From the nature of the expenditure of this department, it requires the utmost vigilance, and a very minute attention, in order to preserve an effectual controul over it, so as to prevent that profusion and waste which is incidental to the consumption of every considerable household.

On that part of the expenditure which appertains immediately to the personal accommodation of their majesties, and which forms but a small part of the whole, the committee do not conceive themselves called upon to offer any observations: they proceed, therefore, to offer such suggestions as occur to them on the general expenditure of the household.

Of these, some are provided upon a regular establishment or scale of allowance, fixed at least thirty years ago, and officially called Livery; 0thers are furnished by Order, that is, at the requisitions of the individuals desiring to be supplied, and having his majesty's authority to make their requisitions to the Roard of Green Cloth. Both these modes appear to the committee liable to objection. The first, being established according to a fixed rate, is not adapted to the actual consumption of the parties to whom the distribution is made; the surplus therefore becomes the perquisite of the individual to whom it is

supplied,

supplied, and in that view, constitutes an expensive and inconvenient mode of reward.

The second applies to a variety of persons of different ranks; and at Windsor the whole expenditure is conducted in this mode; which appears in general to be subject to the same objections as the former, with the additional inconvenience of not being, like the former, limited by any fixed rule as to its extent.

They therefore suggest whether it might not be proper to limit the supply of articles by requisition, to the royal personages themselves; and (abolishing the system of Livery, as it now exists with respect to others) to substitute a principle of actual and bona fide consumption confined within limits, which should on no occasion be exceeded.

The amount of these allowances should be frequently revised, and the general expenditure in the article to which they apply, should be brought under the consideration of the Commissioners of the Treasury at the end of each quarter, who should be furnished with accounts sufficient to enable them to ascertain the nature and causes of any excess that may arise. They are sensible that the establishment of an effectual system for main taining economy in the royal household must, in the first instance, be the result of an enquiry carried on within the household itself; but they trust that the suggestions which they have måde may tend to facilitate any arrangements which may be the result of that enquiry, and may also be the means of controlling the general expenditure.

Such of their royal highnesses as are resident in royal palaces, still continue to increase occasionally the expenditure of the Lord Chamberlain's department, including the Of fice of Works.

The committee are sensible of the delicacy of interfering with the mu

nificence of the crown towards the younger branches of the royal family, by any specific recommendation; but as the parliamentary annuities enjoy. ed by their royal highnesses were con siderably increased a few years ago, they think they may be considered as adequate to support the high sta tions which they fill. The committee therefore trust, that the principle which appears to have been acted upon before in the Lord Steward's department, may be adopted, at least in a great degree, in that of the Lord Chamberlain's; and that the charges upon the Civil List for furnishing, or altering the apartments which their royal highnesses may occupy in any of the royal palaces, may either be entirely discontinued, or be permitted to occur only on very particular occasions.

3.-Master of the Horse. The estimate appears to have been taken at a rate rather higher than the expense previous to 1804; the average expense has fallen short of the esti mate so as to produce a saving of £.4,000.

4.-Master of the Robes. The charge in the early years rather exceeded the estimate; but, owing to circumstances which must be obvious to the house, it has in the last year been reduced, so as to leave a trifling saving.

V.-The fifth class is entitled "The Menial Servants of His Majesty's Household."

The charge has been greater than the estimate in the seven years, by £.25,000. It appears to have arisen chiefly from allowances given as com pensation to various servants of the household, when the tables provided for them were discontinued.

The committee trust, that in adverting to the salaries of the menial servants of His Majesty's Household, they may be permitted to notice a custom which has prevailed, of demanding periodical gratuities, on the

part

part of certain inferior servants belonging to the household, from persons attending the Court. It is understood the ground of these applications is the smallness of the salaries or wages enjoyed by these servants; and the committee submit whether it would not be expedient to take away the excuse made for the demand, by providing adequate salaries for all the servants of the royal household.

VI. The sixth class is, "The Pension List." Excess £.124,000 in seven years.

But, in order to form a clear understanding of this class, it is necessary to divide it into its three branches :

1. The first division consists of the pensions which, under the 17th section of the act of 1782, are limited to £.95,000 per annum in the whole, and of which no one can exceed £.1,200. The estimate of this branch was taken in 1804, at an amount falling short of this legal limitation, and was probably formed upon the existing charge. In fact, the pensions actually paid have never equalled the estimate, so that there has been a saying thereupon of more than £40,000; and a diminution, as compared with the legislative allowance, of £.60,000. But the committee have to observe, that this saving does not entirely arise from a forbearance on the part of the crown to grant pensions to the permitted amount, inasmuch as this list includes the contingent and floating pensions, the non-payment of which occasions a diminution of the charge upon the Civil List, though it does not give any power of granting new pensions.

2. Pensions granted to persons who have served his Majesty at foreign courts, and which were not subjected to the restrictions of the above-mentioned section of the act of 1782.

Upon this head there has been a very great exceeding, the estimate having been of late years more than doubled by the charge.

Dec. 1812.

It must be obvious, that the same circumstances in our political relations which have occasioned the diminution in the charge of ministers resident at foreign courts, already noticed under the third class, must have caused an increase of the pensions to foreign ministers not actually in employ.

3. Sundry small allowances, by way of annual bounty and compensations, paid within the four departments of the household. These have uniformly fallen short of the estimate of 1804, and appear to be rather decreasing.

VII. The seventh class contains, "The Salaries of all other places, payable out of the Civil List Revenues."

The estimate being formed upon the actual rate of those salaries, was correctly taken at about £.55,000, or £.387,000 in seven years. There has been a small diminution of charge.

VIII. The eighth class consists of, "The Salaries and Pensions of the High Treasurer or Commissioners of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer." This class admits of no increase, nor any diminution, except in the case of occasional vacancies.

In the seven years, there has been a saving of £.3,500; but this has been principally occasioned by the circumstance of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Perceval, declining to receive the salary attached to that office from the period at which he became First Commissioner of the Treasury.

Occasional Payments." The estimate has been exceeded by £.330,000 in the seven years; annual average, £.47,000.

After making allowance for the charges, amounting in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, to £.246,000, which were taken from the Civil List by the arrangement of 1804, the average of occasional payment for the three years preceding 1804, was £.217,000—exceeding the estimate adopted, by £.77,000.

£77,000. The result therefore is, that instead of an excess of £.330,000 upon the head of "Occasional Payments," there appears by this comparison to have been a diminution of expenditure, of more than £.200,000 in favour of this period.

1st. Home Secret Service.-Is limited, by act of 1782, to £.10,000, and has not varied.

28. Special Service and Royal Bounty. The estimate is £.12,000, or £.84,000 for seven years; the actual charge has been nearly double that sum, being at the rate of more than £.23,000 annually.

It may be stated thus for the 7 years: 1st. Royal bounty.......£.58,900 2d. Allowances to various of

ficers of the houses of parliament, and others, for business performed for the Treasury, for returns of average prices of corn, &c. &c......... 45,000 3d. Allowances to the magis

trates of Middlesex and Westminster.............. 8,800 4th. Taxes and fees............ 13,500 5th. Various other charges,

mostly of a public na-
ture, and particularized

in an Analysis....... 39,600 The second, third, and fourth of these charges ought not, as the committee conceive, to be stated as special service.

Of the miscellaneous charges included in the 5th head, many are annual payments, and others not of the nature of special service.

Under the head of "Royal Bounty," are included several advances made, by his Majesty's command, to the Duke of Gloucester's family, at the period of the provision made for that branch of the royal family, upon the decease of the late duke his Majesty's brother.

An advance was also made to the Duchess of Brunswick out of the revenue of the Civil List, which was

mentioned in his Majesty's most gra cious message to this house of 10th May 1808, and an advance to her Majesty of £.10,250 which took place in 1810.

3d. Extraordinary Disbursements of Foreign Ministers.-This service was estimated, in 1804, at £.10,000, or £.70,000 in the seven years. The actual charge has been more than £.383,000 or £.54,000 annually.

It must be obvious that this charge is not reducible to an estimate that can approach to accuracy.

Several sums, amounting to £.45,000, appear to have been issued to various ministers, on account of losses sustained by their being under the necessity of suddenly quitting the courts at which they were resident; and there are indeed many other issues which appear to have been partly composed of similar compensations, the amount of which, however, is not in those instances distinguished from the expenses in general.

The sum of £.99,000 appears to have been expended on Special Missions," including the sum of £.12,997 to Mr Frere, and £.14,134 to the Marquis Wellesley, for the expenses of their Special Missions to Spain.

Twenty-five thousand pounds ap pears to have been expended on the British palace at Constantinople, and £.11,000 applied to the establishment of the Persian ambassador in this country.

One less considerable article your committee think it right to notice, because it does not appear to them properly to belong to this particular head of charge, namely, £.1,060 paid to the Duke of Manchester, for " Expenses of his outfit as Governor of Jamaica."

4th. Presents to Foreign Ministers. -These were estimated at £.10,000 or £.70,000 in the whole period.The actual charge has been £.99,000 or £.14,000 annually.

The former average was really

£.14,000;

£.14,000; this average is scarcely exceeded at present.

5th. Equipage to Foreign Ministers. -This charge, estimated at £.4,000 or £.28,000 for seven years, has actually amounted to £.4,700 annually, or nearly £.33,000 in the whole. This amount falls short by more than £.1,200 of the average of three years. 6th and 7th. Contingent Expenses of the Treasury; also, Deficiency of Fees in the Treasury.-Upon the first head, estimated at £.1,500 or £.10,500 at seven years, there has been an exceeding of £.9,000. This increase appears to have been progressive thro' the whole period, and to have exceed ed the estimate in the last year by more than £.2,700.

The deficiency of fees consists of the sum by which the salaries of the secretaries and clerks of the Treasury exceed the amount of the fees received on public instruments passing thro' that office. It was observed in an Account presented to the House, July 9, 1804, that "It did not follow "that an increase of business should "occasion a proportionate increase of "fees, as the correspondence of the "office makes so material a part of "that increase, for which no fees are "charged." All public business having manifestly continued to increase, there has been necessarily an exceeding upon this charge.

8th. Contingencies in the Offices of the three Secretaries of State. On this charge, estimated at £.19,600 or £.137,000 in the seven years, there has been a saving of £.9,000.

9th. Messengers in the Offices of the three Secretaries of State. Taken at £.20,000 annually, upon which there has also been a saving of £.9,500 for seven years.

10th. Deficiency of Fees in the Offices of the three Secretaries of State.Here there has been a saving of more than £.100,000; the actual charge having been £.56,000 in the period of seven years, whereas the amount of

the annual estimate of £.23,000 would have been, in that period, £.161,000.

The remainder of the small and miscellaneous charges, forming part of the occasional payments, were estimated to amount, collectively, to £.14,000, or £.102,000 for the period of seven years; the actual charge, £.96,000, has fallen short of that estimate by £.6,000.

The result of these comparisons is, that the excess of the expenditure of the seven years, ending the 5th July 1811, as compared with the aver age to 5th January 1804, has been £.502,000. The annual excess, upon an average of the seven years, been £.71,000. The average yearly charge of the three last years has exceeded the estimate by £.64,000.The excess of the last year has been £.52,000.

has

The principal excesses have arisen, In the fourth class: in the bills of tradesmen in the office of Lord Chamberlain, (especially in the Office of Works,) and in the office of Lord Steward.

In the sixth class: upon the pensions to foreign ministers.

Among the occasional payments, in the charges appearing under the head of "Special Service and Royal Bounty;"The extraordinaries of foreign ministers, and presents to ministers of foreign courts; and in the expenses of the Treasury.

The prominent causes of these excesses, are severally, the advance in the prices of all articles of furniture and consumption: the enlarged establishment of different branches of the royal family: the peculiar and fluctuating state of our foreign relations: the increase of public business.

But your committee cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a strict attention on the part both of the offi cers of the royal household, and of the commissioners of the treasury, to the