on an average of twenty years, 40001. a year clear to the crown. As to Wafer and the county palatine of Chester, have my doubts whether their productive exchequer yields any returns at all."* The Civil List of Queen Victoria was settled by 1 Viet. c. 2. This act contains a very important and salutary provision, which will shortly be noticed. respecting pensions. The preamble of the act states that her majesty had placed unreservedly at the disposal of the commons in par liament those hereditary revenues which were transferred to the public by her im mediate predecessors, and that her ma jesty felt confident that her faithful com mons would gladly make adequate pro vision for the support of the honour and dignity of the crown. It is then enacted, that the hereditary revenue shall be carried to the Consolidated Fund during the life of her majesty, but that after her demise it shall be payable to her suc cessors. The latter part of the enactment is a mere form. By § 3 the clear yearly sum of 335,000/. is to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund for the support of her majesty's household and of the honour and dignity of the crown, to be applied according to a schedule as under: 1. For her Majesty's privy purse £60,000 2. Salaries of her Majesty's
household and retired al lowances . . . 131,260 3. Expenses of her Majesty's household . . . 172,500 4. Royal bounty, alms, and special services . . 13,200 5. Pensions to the extent of 120c1.
per annum.
6. Unappropriated monies . 8,040 £385,000 The restriction to which allusion has been made relates to class 5 in the schedule.
This check upon the wanton and extra vagant disposal of the public money is thoroughly in accordance with just and constitutional principles. The amount which can be granted in pensions by the crown in any one year is not to exceed 1200l.; and the Civil List Act restricts, though in a comprehensive spirit, the per sons to whom they are to be granted, who must be such persons only as have just claims on the royal benevolence, or who by their personal services to the crown, by the performance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in science and attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious consideration of their sovereign and the gratitude of their coun try. A fist of all such pensions must be laid before parliament yearly. [PEN SIONS; WOODS AND FOREST'S. j