Another committee inquired into the subject of the civil list in 1815, and it was upon the report made by this committee that the amount of the civil list was set tled, on the accession of George IV., at 850,0001. per annum, 255,0001. of annual charge being at the same time transferred from this branch to other funds. It was calculated that the distribution of this sum would be under the following heads :— 1. His Majesty's privy purse, 60,0001.
2. Allowances to the lord chancellor, judges, and Speaker of the House of Commons, 32,9561. 3. Salaries, &c. of his Majesty's ambassadors and other mi nisters, salaries to consuls, and pensions to retired ambassadors and ministers, 226,950/. 4. Expenses, except salaries, of his Majesty's household in the departments of the lord steward, lord chamberlain, master of the horse, master of the robes, and surveyor-general of works, 209,0001. 5. Salaries in the last-mentioned de partments, 140,700/. 6. Pensions limited by Act 22 Geo. III. c. 82, 95,000/. 7. Salaries to certain officers of state, and various other allowances, 41,306/. 8. Salaries to the commissioners of the trea sury and chancellor of the exchequer, 13,8221. 9. Occasional payments not comprised in any of the aforesaid classes, 26,000/. The crown was left besides in the enjoyment of the hereditary revenues in Scotland, amounting to about 110,0001. per annum ; and also of a civil list for Ireland, of 207,000/.
On the 15th of November, 1830, im mediately after the accession of King William IV., the late Lord Congleton, then Sir Henry Parnell, carried in the House of Commons a motion for appoint ing a select committee to inquire into the civil list. The chief object proposed was the separation of the proper expenses of the crown from all those other charges which still continued to be mixed up with them under that title. The consequence of the success of this motion (besides the overthrow of the Wellington administra tion and the introduction of the Reform Bill) was another report, upon which was founded the Act I Will. IV. c. 25, for the regulation of the civil list. The committee which was appointed on the motion of Sir H. Parnell, recommended that the civil-list charges should be con fined to expenses proper for the mainte nance of their Majesties' household, and the sum of 510,0001. was granted to his Ma
jesty by the above act under the following classes:—I. For their Majesties' privy purse, 110,0001. 2. Salaries of his Majesty's household, 130,300/. 3. Expenses of his Majesty's household, 171,5001. 4. Spe cial and secret service, 23,200/. 5. Pen sions, 75,000/. A separate civil list for Ireland was discontinued ; and the Scotch hereditary revenues, as well as the droits of admiralty, and the 41 per cent. duties, were to be paid into the Exchequer for the use of the public.
Speaking of the civil list as settled by 1 Will. IV. c. 25, and comparing it with the civil list of King Geo. IV., Lord Congleton remarked (' Financial Reform,' p. 205) " that there was no real reduction in that arrangement, for whatever ap pears to be a reduction, has been pro duced by a transfer of charge from one head to another of the old civil list. The chief difference in this arrangement from the former consists in the transfer of about 460,0001. a year from the civil list to the consolidated fund, and in providing for the gradual reduction of the pensions to 75,0001. a year." William IV. retained the revenues of the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which are considered to be the hereditary revenues, not of the crown, but of the duchies of Lancaster and of Cornwall. The duchy of Lancaster is permanently annexed to the crown, and the duchy of Cornwall belongs to the crown when there is no Prince of Wales. No account of the amount of these revenues had ever been laid before parliament until very recently. In his speech on Economical Reform in 1780, Mr. Burke said, " Every one of those principalities has the appearance of a kingdom, for the jurisdiction over a few private estates ; and the formality and charge of the Exchequer of Great Britain, for collecting the rents of a country squire. Cornwall is the best of them ; but when you compare the charge with the receipt, you will find that it furnishes no exception to the general rule. The duchy and county palatine of Lancaster do not yield, as I have reason to believe.