330 = 64 
British Agriculture. 
their income is in no way affected by the question of rent, their 
position is one of perfect impartiality between landowners and 
their tenants, and they are the natural referees of the poorer 
inhabitants. In proportion to the whole number of landowners 
in England the removal of this numerous body would strike out 
more than a fourth of those receiving above 200Z. a year, and 
probably much more than one-fourth of the resident landowners. 
This, irrespective of the question of religion, would be a change 
of great magnitude in its social effect, which deserves careful 
consideration. 
Her Majesty's 
Woods,Forests, 
and Land 
now yield a 
net revenue 
to the public 
Exchequer 
exceeding the 
amount of the 
Ciril List. 
Ckown Estates. 
Besides the domain and Great Park attached to the Royal 
Castle of Windsor, 14,000 acres in extent, there are comprised 
in the Royal patrimony upwards of 70,000 acres of land in the 
Kingdom let in farms to agricultural tenants, and also house 
property in London, and land let on building leases, and con- 
siderably 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 property, but the sur- 
plus now paid annually to the Exchequer has risen above, and 
is likely to continue more and more to exceed the annual amount 
of the Civil List. This is a sum assured by Parliament to the 
Sovereign, at the beginning 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 paid into the public Exchequer, 
and a fixed sum of 385,000/. is, in lieu of it, annually paid to 
the Queen for the maintenance of her State, and for the salaries 
and expenses of Her Majesty's Household. In the period of 
forty years since the commencement of the present reign, all 
expenses, both public and private, have largely increased, but no 
new demand on that account has been made on the public for 
an increase of the Civil List. And as the hereditary estates are 
now yielding to the public Exchequer more than it pays to the 
Queen, the remarkable and probably unique example is presented 
in this country of a great Sovereign whose household and Royal 
dignity are thus maintained without any cost to her subjects. 
