Crown Estates. 137 



and also house property in London, and land let 

 on building leases, and considerably more than 

 100,000 acres of Royal forests. For the last 

 twenty years this great property has been 

 managed by two Commissioners, under the 

 superintendence of Her Majesty's Treasury, with 

 great judgment and care, and at the moderate 

 cost of less than 3 per cent, on the total receipts. 

 The gross revenue has for some years shown 

 a steady annual increase, and now amounts to 

 ^469,000. A large expenditure is annually 

 made in maintaining and improving the pro- 

 perty, but the surplus now paid annually to the ^0^^ yjgij 

 Exchequer has risen above, and is likely to revenue to 



the public 



continue more and more to exceed the annual Exchequer 



exceeding 



amount of the Civil List. This is a sum assured the amount 



of the Civil 



by Parliament to the Sovereign, at the beginning List. 

 of each reign, to defray the expenses of the 

 Royal Household, by an arrangement continued 

 from Sovereign to Sovereign from the time of 

 the Revolution in 1688. The surplus income 

 from the hereditary estates of the Crown, which 

 was then precarious and uncertain, is by this 

 arrangement during the reign of the Sovereign 



