548 Notes of the Month on [MAY, 



And let it be remembered by John Bull, who pays for all, that, for 

 this enormous sum a building has been raised, which is at present 

 utterly useless. That it at present can afford a tenement to nothing but 

 the rats, and that in those estimates furniture, and the innumerable 

 things necessary to complete a palace for a residence, are not adverted to. 

 Before that Pimlico Palace can be fit for the reception of the King, 

 another half million must be extracted from the pockets of John Bull. 



Then come the repairs of Windsor Castle, which though no man 

 would grudge, if they were actual and necessary repairs of a great 

 national edifice, as the castle is, seem to have been characterised by just 

 the same want of taste and economy. But here the furniture is the 

 galling affair. 



In order to check the estimate, three commissioners were appointed, 

 and they sanctioned an estimate of 233,990. The expenditure incurred, 

 however, appeared to be in the Chamberlain's department, 289,718 

 in the Lord Steward's department, 1,768 and for the tapestry, 3,550, 

 making a total of 295,036, leaving an excess of 61,000 on the esti- 

 mate sanctioned by Parliament. In the furniture supplied, the principal 

 excess was in the account of one tradesman. The estimate for the work 

 was 143,000, but his bill came to 203,000. 



The furniture of a portion of the castle has already cost upwards of 

 300,000. The combined cost of the Pimlico Palace, in which the 

 King cannot reside, and Windsor Castle, in which he probably will 

 not reside a month in the year, is actually at this moment one million 

 four hundred thousand pounds ! Lord Althorp declares that all this 

 deserves to be inquired into, and in particular the estimate of that 

 dashing dealer who in an estimate of 143,000, contrived to make an 

 advance of 60,000. And his lordship is perfectly right. The whole 

 transaction demands the most rigid inquiry. The country will be satis- 

 fied with nothing less, and he may rely on it, that unless such investi- 

 gation be prompt, complete, and clear, the consequences may be 

 formidably injurious to the quiet of the country. We by no means 

 conceive that ministers look upon those things with less disgust and 

 contempt than we do ; but it is essential to their honour that they see 

 justice effectually and expeditiously done. 



Lord King's perpetual attacks on the Church, are made so much with 

 the air of a man eager to talk about something or other, that they lose all 

 their effect, and the affair goes on in the old way. But on one of his 

 late motions, whose object was to ascertain the number of resident and 

 non-resident clergy in England and Wales, distinguishing the non-resi- 

 dents who held of the clergy or corporation from those who held their 

 benefices of lay impropriators, he brought out some remarkable admis- 

 sions. 



({ A right rev. prelate had the other night stated that the average income of 

 each clergyman did not exceed 365. 18s. 4d. This he would not deny; but 

 he saw from the returns that, while the average was to that amount, there 

 were six thousand clergy who had livings at an average of 645, a-year ; and 

 he thought some limits should be fixed, and livings made to correspond as 

 nearly as possible with the general average of the incomes of the whole clergy. 

 The son-in-law of the Bishop of Ely had been presented by the bishop to the 

 rich living of Wisbeach, though he held five livings besides, estimated at the 

 value of 5,000. a-year. In the see of York, he found some of the clergy had 

 only 30. a-year, and that the curate of a living in the gift of the University 



