S6J ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



On April 1 4th the order of the 

 day for going into a committee 

 on the Message having been read, 

 Lord Castlereagh moved that the 

 committee be deferred till to- 

 morrow. 



Mr. Brougham, Mr. Tierney, 

 and Lord Folkestone, spoke with 

 great disparagement of the minis- 

 ters ; but in the end. Lord Cas- 

 tlereagh's motion was agreed to 

 without a division. 



On the 15th the Speaker having 

 left the chair, and the House 

 forming itself into a committee, 

 Lord CastUrengh rose for the 

 purpose of drawing the attention 

 of the members to the message of 

 the Prince Regent, He began 

 by stating to the House the great 

 change that had taken place in 

 the early part of the present 

 reign, by which all those branches 

 of revenue which had formerly 

 been at the uncontrolled disposal 

 of the crown, were surrendered 

 into the hands of that House to 

 be administered for the public 

 benefit. This circumstance ne- 

 cessarily threw the reigning fa- 

 mily into a state of dependance 

 upon the House of Commons for 

 such assistance as their wants re- 

 quired ; at the same time the 

 House were to consider them- 

 selves as only discharging that 

 duty to the crown which a just 

 view of the interests of the coun- 

 try prescribed to them. His lord- 

 ship, coming down to the duke 

 of York's marriage with the prin- 

 cess of Prussia in 1792, affirmed 

 that on no principle of reasoning 

 it could be maintained that the 

 duke was then as near the crown 

 as the duke of Clarence must be 

 considered lo be at present. The 

 duke of York having no descend- 



ants, and the Prince Regent hav- 

 ing lost his only child, the duke 

 of Clarence, according to all the 

 calculations of probabilities, was 

 at present nearer to the succes- 

 sion to the throne, than the duke 

 of York was in 1792. Taking 

 this into consideration, ministers, 

 in proposing that the duke of 

 Clarence should receive what 

 parliament had given to the duke 

 of York twenty- six years ago, 

 when the value of money was 

 much greater than at present, 

 had treated the question as one 

 purely British, and had been 

 actuated by no motive that they 

 need hesitate to avow. 



With respect to the junior 

 branches of the royal family, 

 ministers had no precise rule to 

 go by, as in the case of the duke 

 of Clarence, but it was their 

 wish to keep the expense within 

 the narrowest limits. They had 

 thought it would be right to add 

 12,000/. to the existing income 

 of such of their royal highnesses 

 as should marry with the royal 

 consent, by which their income 

 would be raised from 18 to 

 30,000/. per annum. Out of the 

 12,000/. proposed to be granted, 

 it was intended that, as in the 

 case of the duchess of York, 

 4,000/. should be deducted and 

 settled as pin money on the royal 

 brides. He would ask if minis- 

 ters were guiltj' of an improvident 

 act in proposing an addition of 

 8,000/. to the income of the royal 

 dukes on their marriage, and if, 

 without such an augmentation, 

 their means would be sufficient 

 to cany them and their families 

 on without the reproach of being 

 in debt. Such were the reasons 

 which had influenced the Prince 



Regent's 



