90] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



the concurrence and assistance of 

 the House of Commons in ena- 

 bling him to make a suitable and 

 proper provision with a view to 

 the said marriage." 



The House agreed to return 

 the thanks of this House for his 

 most gracious communication of 

 the intended marriage, &rc. &c. ; 

 to express our entire satisfaction 

 at the prospect of this alliance 

 with a Protestant princess of 

 illustrious family ; and to assure 

 his Royal Highness that the 

 House will immediately proceed 

 to the consideration of his Royal 

 Highness's gracious message, &c. 



On May 15th Lord Castlereagh 

 called the attention of the House 

 to his Royal Highness's message. 

 He proposed, in the present in- 

 stance, strictly to follow the 

 course adopted by the House in 

 the case of the duke of Cam- 

 bridge ; which was, to make the 

 same provision for the duke of 

 Kent, and the same dower to his 

 intended duchess, in the event of 

 her surviving him. He did not 

 propose any outfit, as he un- 

 derstood from his royal high- 

 ness that under all the cir- 

 cumstances of the case he did 

 not wish for it. He then took 

 into consideration the character 

 of the illustrious female with 

 whom his royal highness was 

 about to ally iiimself and showed 

 that the provision of a dower for 

 her was but an act of bare justice. 

 Turning to his royal highness, he 

 observed that for some years he 

 had been under streightened cir- 

 cumstances, wl ich he had met in 

 the most manly and honourable 

 way. Until he was thirty -two 

 years of age, he had only an 

 allowance of 5,000/. from his royal 



father, together with about the 

 same sum as commander-in-chief 

 of the British possessions in North 

 America. Under these circum- 

 stances he would move, " That 

 his majesty be enabled to grant 

 a yearly sum of money out of the 

 consolidated fund of the United 

 Kingdom of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, not exceeding in the 

 whole the sum of 6,000/., to make 

 a suitable provision for his royal 

 highness the duke of Kent, upon 

 his marriage.'* 



Mr. Curwen said, that however 

 painful to his feelings it might be, 

 he felt it his duty to oppose the 

 present motion. He rested his 

 opposition on two points. In the 

 first place, he did not know that 

 he had ever acceded to any pledge 

 which bound him, in all cases, to 

 make provision for any branch of 

 the royal family when a marriage 

 was about to take place. Secondly, 

 he had observed that it was ex- 

 pected that they were not to take 

 into consideration any emolument 

 enjo3'ed from military or other 

 situations by the royal family. j| 

 He never had conceded any such 

 principle ; and had it not been 

 for the late hour at which the 

 question was brought forward on 

 a former occasion, he would have 

 opposed it. He considered the 

 situation in which the country 

 was placed, and he could not con- 

 sent that 6,000/. per annum should 

 be added to the existing burthens. 



Lord Castlereagh appealed to 

 the House, whether it would be 

 grateful to their feelings that the 

 sum necessary to enable his royal 

 highness to support himself in a 

 married state abroad, should be 

 derived from any other source 

 than tlie bounty of parliament. 



^ The 



