256 



CIVIL LIST CIVILIZATION'. 



CIVIL LIST ; nn expression which formerly was 

 customary only in England, but at present prevails 

 also in Germany and France. As used in England, 

 it signifies the sum which is granted to every king, 

 at the beginning of his reign, for the support of his 

 court and household, of ambassadors, and of the civil 

 government in general. It was once a principle in 

 I upland, as in other Teutonic nations, that the 

 monarch was to pay all the expenses of government, 

 even including those of the army, from the posses- 

 -ioiis of tlie crown, the domains (in Gentian Fursten- 

 g'lter), and tliat the subjects were not obliged to con- 

 tribute anything more than they voluntarily engaged 

 to. From this 'principle, which is proved by the his- 

 tory of the origin of the domains, it appears, that the 

 domains, in general, cannot be considered the pri- 

 vate property of the ruling family. On the contrary, 

 they are, in general, the property of the state, and 

 have been given to the prince to defray the expenses 

 of government. The crown lands of the Saxon 

 kings were very considerable. After the Norman 

 conquest, they were much increased by confiscation, 

 but were soon diminished by grants. Under Henry 

 VIII., they were again much increased by the secu- 

 larization of the convents (there existed, at that tune, 

 in England, twenty-seven mitred abbots ; there were 

 also two priories, besides numerous other convents) ; 

 but the greater part of the possessions of the religi- 

 ous orders was squandered by this prince. William 

 III. thought it necessary to strengthen his govern- 

 ment by liberally rewarding his most faithfuFadher- 

 ents, for which reason he made grants of the crown 

 lands with such profusion that, under the govern- 

 ment of his successor (in 1702), a law was passed, 

 prohibiting the alienation of the royal domains. 

 There exist, therefore, few crown lands at pre- 

 sent, and the income from them goes into the public 

 treasury. Formerly, there were only certain annual 

 contributions granted to the king for the support of 

 the government. Under Charles II., the amount of 

 the grant was first settled (1,200,000). Under 

 James II., this was increased to 1,900,000. The 

 revenue from Scotland was not comprised in this 

 sum. After the revolution of 1688, William's love 

 of war being known and dreaded by his people, no 

 appropriation was made him for military expenses, 

 and he received for defraying the expenses of the 

 household, and the brandies of the civil service im- 

 mediately under the royal control, the sum of 

 700,000, and, at a later period, 800,000. This 

 was called the civil list. Under queen Anne, the 

 civil list amounted only to 691,000 ; under George 

 I., at first, to 7 50,000, but was increased to 

 850,000. George II. had 800,000. George III. 

 resigned all the hereditary crown taxes and revenues, 

 appropriated to defray the expenses of the civil list, 

 for the sum of .800,000, which, hi 1777, was in- 

 creased to 900,000, and at last, in 1812, to 

 1,028,000. Besides these grants, the debts of the 

 civil list have been paid several times by parliament. 

 From 1760 to 1784, they amounted to nearly 

 22,000,000. 



In France, during the revolution, certain sums 

 were assigned for the support of the king and his 

 family, which civil list differed from the English in 

 so far as all the real expenses of government were 

 separated from it. For the king, according to the 

 law of Nov. 8, 1814, 25,000,000 livres (1,041,000) 

 were set apart, and for the princes and the princesses, 

 8,000,000. To these grants are to be added the 

 royal palaces in Paris (the Louvre and theTuileries), 

 the castles and domains at Versailles, Marly, St 

 Cloud, Meudon, Rambouillet, Compeigne, St Ger- 

 main en-La'ye, Fontainebleau, &c., with all the valu- 

 ables and works of art appertaining to them : like- 



wise the manufactories of Sevres, Gobelins, La So- 

 vonerie and Beauvais, which were declared inalien- 

 able possessions of the crown (dotation de la courennc). 

 The enjoyment of these estates and manufactories 

 belongs to the monarch, without being subject in 

 taxes or any public burdens, and the administration 

 of them belongs to the minister of the household. 

 Distinct from the crown domains are the domains of 

 the state (domaine de fetat), and the private posses- 

 sions of the king (domaine prive du roi), which tic- 

 king acquires like any other individual, pays tiixo 

 on, and can dispose of in his last will. If he, how- 

 ever, omits to do so, all his private property falls to 

 the domaine de Vetat. Also, all the private properly 

 which the king possessed before his accession to the 

 throne, falls, at the moment of his accession, to the 

 domaine de Vetat. 



In Prussia, the official statement of all the reve- 

 nues and expenses to supply the ordinary wants of 

 the state in 1821, does not mention the civil list. 

 The expenses which fall under this head are de- 

 frayed by the domains, since a part of them, amount- 

 ing to 2,500,000 Prussian dollars, has been added to 

 the property of the crown. But the greater part of 

 the domains, amounting to 5,600,000 Prussian dollars 

 income annually, has been assigned to meet the pub- 

 lic expenses. (Basse, Darstellung des staatsteirth- 

 schaftlichen Zustandes in den Deutschen Bundes- 

 staaten, 1820, p. 505.) 



In Bavaria, the domains have l)een mostly sold and 

 added to the public treasury, which furnishes to die 

 king and his court 2,745,000 florins annually. The 

 same plan has been followed in Wurtemberg ana 

 Baden. In both states, the civil lists, according to 

 the narrower sense in which this phrase is understood 

 in France, amounts to nearly 1,200,000 florins, 

 which, in W urtemberg, is increased by 200,000 

 florins income from the court domains. If we com- 

 pare these sums with the amount of the finances of 

 the different countries, we find that in 



Britain, about one 60th part, 



France 36th, 



Prussia, 21st, 



Biivaria, . . Ilth, 



Wurtemberg and Baden, oue half, 



of the revenue of the country is expended for the 

 ruling house, and the proportion is still greater in 

 the case of the smaller governments. It is worth 

 while to compare these sums with the modest salaries 

 of the American cabinet, and the revenue of the 

 Union. In some small governments, the principle 

 of despotism has gone so far as to assign to the ceurt 

 and the ruling family the income of all the domains, 

 and to throw the whole public debt on the country. 



CIVILIZATION is one of those comprehensive 

 words which are most used and least understood. 

 Most people take their own tune, and, very often, 

 their own country, as the standard whereby they 

 judge the civilization of other ages and other coun- 

 tries. Whether our age has reached a higher point 

 of civilization than any preceding one, is, of course 

 a matter of very great doubt, but there is no douht 

 that, it makes louder claims to superiority in this re- 

 spect than any previous period. Such pretensions 

 are generally the consequence of ignorance of- other 

 times and their productions. It is certainly a cir- 

 cumstance worthy of some consideration, that persons 

 whose talents and acquirements have enabled them 

 to take wide and penetrating views of the past and 

 present, have shown the least disposition to echo the 

 cry of the march of intellect. The different opinion? 

 respecting civilization may be comprised under a few- 

 heads : 1. Some people believe in the possibility of 

 constant advancement, and the ultimate attainment 

 of perfect civilization, a consequence of which wili 

 be perfect happiness. 2. Others believe that every 



