1830.] England and Europe in October 1830. 501 



Army 7,769,178 



Navy 5,878,71)4 



Ordnance 1,728,908 



Miscellaneous 2,067,973 



Civil List 2,200,000! 



Naval and Military Pensions 585,740 



20,230,593 



Such are what may be called the government expenses of the country, 

 of which those for the Navy are the only ones which the nation is content 

 to pay. The naval and military pensions are, of course, included as 

 matters of actual debt and duty. But what is to be said of a Civil List 

 of two millions two hundred thousand pounds sterling? Of this only 

 30,000/. goes to the Judges, and all the rest, enormous as it is> goes in 

 salaries to Ambassadors, who are little better than bloated sinecurists, at 

 from two to 12,000/. a year down ; to Officers of the Household, of whose 

 use we must beg leave to doubt, until we shall know what is the use of Lord 

 Maryborough riding about in green and gold, with a salary of 3,000/. 

 a year and a fine house, for his trouble in galloping after the king's dogs ; 

 or what is the use of the equerries, gentlemen of the bed-chamber, lords 

 in waiting, grooms of the stole, gold keys, white rods, and all the 

 trumpery of the palace. Yet for those fine things, is yearly tost to the 

 winds a million and a half of money. On the lace and coxcombry of 

 those silly and slavish people goes in a year as much money as would 

 build three bridges over the Thames, or dig a canal from London to 

 Portsmouth. Let Sir James Graham look to this. He will find the 

 Civil List an incomparable field for the exercise of his patriotic labours. 



As to the King's personal expenditure no man in this country will 

 desire to see him curtailed of a single shilling that can make him hap- 

 pier, fitter to exercise the duties of his high station, or more able to 

 enjoy his sovereignty. We desire to see the King what a King of 

 England should be opulent, splendid, and on a par with any sovereign 

 living. But the Civil List has consumers who have nothing to do with 

 the King or his comforts ; and to the Civil List we again invite the eye 

 of every honest member of the first parliament of his Majesty William 

 the Fourth. 



The interest of the national debt must be paid. The nation is pledged 

 to it by the bond of public faith, so that the matter admits of no ques- 

 tion. No nation ever profited by an act of knavery ; and the attempt to 

 sponge the debt would have the nature of both knavery and folly. It 

 must be religiously paid. Yet the sum is terrible. The interest, 

 exclusive of the Sinking Fund, is 27,053,000/. The interest on the 

 Exchequer Bills is 850,000/. : the whole yearly sum of the government 

 taxation amounting to the overwhelming sum of 48,133,593/. But to 

 this must be added the enormous local taxation, and then we may well 

 ask how an Englishman can live ? 



On a general view of English Finance, we find the statement as 

 follows : 



The national debt 800,000,000 



The (average) sinking-fund 2,300,000 



The public taxation, amounting in the whole 



to about 50,000,000 



The local taxation, viz. poor-rates, tythes, church- 

 rates, highway-rates, county-rates, c 20,000,000 



