The Cost of Royalty in 1856

There exists in Liverpool, England, a society of merchants called the Financial Reform Association, who make it their business to watch the expenditures of the Realm of Great Britain, and to note and expose extravagance or corruption in the use of the public revenues.

The Association has from time to time published tracts in which the lavish waste of money by government has been shown up and retrenchment and reform loudly called for.

The Society has recently issued a pamphlet with the ironical title of “The Royal Household, a Model of Parliament and the Nation.” In which the enormous expenses of the Royal family of England is set down for the thoughtful to ponder on. From this tract is appears that upon her accession to the throne, the Queen had the pleasure of giving her official sanction to an act of Parliament setting £385,000 a year – nearly $2,000,000 – upon herself for life.

This was $50,000 more than was allowed her predecessor, William IV. At the same time the allowance of the Queen’s mother was increased from $110,000 to $150,000.

Although the people grumbled at this extravagance, few members of Parliament dared to lift their voices against it. In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham boldly opposed the grant as excessive. All who spoke against the measure were roundly abused.

The statute which granted $2,000,000 pre annum to the Queen, with $50,000 per annum additional “for home secret service,” provided for the particular application of the money as follows: -

1. For Her Majesty’s privy purse $300,000;

2. For salaries of her household, $626,000;

3. Expenses of the household – that is what Paddy would call “the best eating and drinking,” - $862,500;

4. Royal bounty alms, and special services, $16,000;

5. Pensions to the extend of $6,000;

6. Unappropriated moneys, $40,200.

Although it was stipulated in the act that the Queen should surrender for her lifetime the hereditary revenues which her immediate predecessor have been possessed of, yet except the duties on beer, ale and cider; there was no relinquishment on these hereditary revenues, and she now draws from a civil list of Ireland, Scotland, the Duchy of Lancaster, etc., the modest sum of $1,415,000 in addition to the sum of $2,425,000 voted her by parliament making the annual income of $3,310,000! Beside this the Queen is heir to all persons without legal heirs who may die intestate in any part of her empire.

Another necessary expense for keeping up the “honor and dignity” of the crown is the income bestowed upon Prince Albert, the Queen’s husband. This was fixed by parliament at $150,000 yearly, and Her Majesty has heaped lucrative appointments which nearly doubles the amount. And there is a further sum of $550,000 for certain dukes, duchesses, etc.

The Queen also has the free use of various palaces, which are kept in repair at the public expense. The cost is by no means small, the appropriation for 1856 for, palaces, parks, gardens, &c., being $1,248,465. Add this to the actual income of the Queen and Prince Albert, and they will be found to receive as much as $5,888,466 every year, simply for personal and domestic expenditure and hoardings. Whenever the Queen travels by land the tolls at the turnpikes are remitted, and the Admiralty keep a steam yacht and provide her table when she takes an excursion upon the water.

In 1842 Sir Robert Peel announced that Victoria had “most graciously” determined to submit her income to the “income tax,” but there is no record of her having done so; when the Secretary of the Liverpool Association wrote to the Treasury Department making inquiries upon the subject, the reply was short and sharp – that they did not answer such questions, and that such information was to be obtained only through Parliament. The sum which the Queen would have had to pay during the war would have been $200,000.

We should think that such facts are these would make English people rather nervous, and that they would be led to enquire whether they are not paying a little too dear for the royal whistle. It is said to be the last feather that breaks the camel’s back. There is a rumor current in England that the Queen is about to apply to Parliament for a marriage dowry of $350,000 for the Princess Royal, a young miss of sixteen who is said to be engaged to the crown prince of Prussia. Perhaps this application, if made may lead the public to count the cost of royalty.

RELEVANT LINKS

• Colonial Expenditure And Government in 1848

• A History of The British Secular Movement

• House of Lords

• Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN
[Queen Victoria]

THE LAST ILLNESS

AUTHORITATIVE ACCOUNT

The British Medical Journal and the Lancet have received information which enables them to publish the following authoritative account of the last illness of the Queen: -

OSBORNE, January 23, 1901.

The Queen’s health for the past twelve months had been failing, with symptoms mainly of a dyspeptic kind, accompanied by impaired general nutrition, periods of insomnia, and later by occasional slight and transitory attacks of aphasia, the latter suggesting that the cerebral vessels had become damaged, although her Majesty’s general arterial system showed remarkably few signs of age.

The constant brain work through a long life of Royal responsibilities, and the Imperial events, domestic sorrows, and anxieties which have crowded into later years, may, no doubt, be held in some measure to account for this discrepancy between the cerebral and general vessel nutrition. The thoracic and abdominal organs showed no sign of disease.

The dyspepsia which tended to lower her Majesty’s original robust constitution was especially marked during her last visit to Balmoral. It was there that the Queen first manifested distinct symptoms of brain fatigue and lost notably in weight.

These symptoms continued at Windsor, where in November and December, 1900, slight aphasic symptoms were first observed, always of an ephemeral kind, and unattended by any motor paralysis. Although it was judged best to continue the negotiations for her Majesty’s proposed visit to the Continent in the spring, it was distinctly recognised by her physicians and by those in closest personal attendance upon her that these arrangements were purely provisional, it being particularly desired not to discourage her Majesty in regard to her own health by suggesting doubts as to the feasibility of the change abroad to which she had been looking forward.

The Queen suffered unusual fatigue from the journey to Osborne on December 18, showing symptoms of nervous agitation and restlessness which lasted for two days. Her Majesty afterwards improved for a time, both in appetite and nerve tone, in response to more complete quietude than she had hitherto consented to observe.

A few days before the final illness transient but recurring symptoms of apathy and somnolence, with aphasic indications and increasing feebleness, gave great uneasiness to her physician.

On Wednesday, January 16th, the Queen showed symptoms of increasing cerebral exhaustion. By an effort of will, however, her Majesty would for a time, as it were, command her brain to work, and the visitor of a few minutes would fail to observe the signs of cerebral exhaustion.

On Thursday the mental confusion was more marked with considerable drowsiness, and a slight flattening was observed on the right side of the face. From this time the aphasia and facial paresis, although incomplete, were permanent.

On Friday the Queen was a little brighter, but on Saturday evening there was a relapse of the graver symptoms, which, with remissions, continued until the end.

It is important to note that, notwithstanding the great bodily weakness and cerebral exhaustion, the heart’s action was steadily maintained to the last, the pulse at times evincing increased tension, but being always regular and of normal frequency.

The temperature was normal throughout.

In the last few hours of life paresis of the pulmonary nerves set in, the heart beating steadily to the end.

Beyond the slight right facial flattening there was never any motor paralysis, and, except for the occasional lapses mentioned, the mind cannot be said to have been clouded. Within a few minutes of death the Queen recognised the several members of her family.

RELEVANT LINK

• The Funeral of Queen Victoria

Transcript from original newspaper article: -

The National Debt of Britain Between the 17th and 19th Century
(The Cost of Conflicts and Wars)

We need not say that an official “Return of the Whole Amount of the National Debt of Great Britain and Ireland,” and its annual progress since its formation, has a portentous look about it.

The great leaps of our national debt, however, are marked and distinct, and own one great uniform impulse, - war, war, war.

There is a war, and it immediately stirs; there is peace, and it stops; there is war, and it goes on again. The history of our debt is the history of our wars.

Charles II handed over a public debt of 664,268 l. to his successor. That small sum was the original basis of our national debt; the secret of borrowing once learnt, the application of it was easy, and the seed had a steady and large growth.

In 1691 it had reached a sum of 3,000,000 l. The war with France raised it, in 1697, to 14,000,000 l, at which sum it stood for three years, when the war of the Spanish succession, in 1702, took it up. This war, before it had done with it, made it 34,000,000 l.

The war with Spain, which began in 1718 and lasted three years, left it 54,000,000. The peace of eighteen years, which the country enjoyed under the mild, though not exactly Saturnian*, sway of Sir Robert Walpole, reduced these figures to 46,000,000 l; but the war of right of search with Spain and the war of the Austrian succession left them in 1748 raised to the threatening sum of 75,000,000 l.

After a stationary interval of eight years the seven years’ war took the plant under its fostering hand, and presented the debt in 1763 almost exactly doubled – i.e., advanced to the good round sum of 130,000,000 l.

After another stationary interval of peace the American war came, and nearly doubled the figures as they stood at the end of the preceding war. Leaving the debt in 1784 raised to the sum of 240,000,000 l.

The ten years’ peace which followed was the introduction to the great French War, when we began borrowing in earnest. Up to this epoch we were children comparatively in the art, though certainly promising children; now the mature genius of manhood took up the early lesson, and showed what real proficiency was.

We almost date the national debt in our minds from the French war, as if the preceding amount were a mere retaining fee not worth speaking about; and well we may; twenty years nearly quadrupled the whole collective growth of a century, and left the national debt more than a heavy sum of a round sum – viz, the almost mythical sum of 860,000,000 l.

The forty years’ peace took nearly 100,000,000 l. from this monster, but the Russian war put half of it on again, and now we stand at 805,000,000 l.

The ‘l’ symbol used in the above Victorian newspaper article represents the £ (pounds sterling) and comes from L which stands for the Latin "libre".

*Saturnian - Roman Myth of or pertaining to Saturn, whose age or reign, from the mildness and wisdom of his government is called the golden age e.g. resembling the golden age; distinguished for peacefulness, happiness, contentment. The Right Honourable Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676-1745)

WARS with BRITAIN

(As referenced in the above Victorian newspaper article*)

The War with France (1688-1697).

The War of the Grand Alliance (also known as the War of the League of Augsburg, the Nine Years War, the Orleans War, the War of the Palatinian Succession, and the War of the English Succession) was a major war fought in Europe and America from 1688 to 1697, between France and the League of Augsburg — which, by 1689, was known as the "Grand Alliance". The war was fought to resist French expansionism along the Rhine, as well as, on the part of England, to safeguard the results of the Glorious Revolution from a possible French-backed restoration of James II.

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714).

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was a major European armed conflict that arose in 1701 after the death of the last Spanish Habsburg king, Charles II. Charles had bequeathed all of his possessions to Philip, duc d'Anjou (Philip V), a grandson of the French King Louis XIV. The war began slowly, as the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I fought to protect his own dynasty's claim to the Spanish inheritance. As Louis XIV began to expand his territories more aggressively, however, other European nations (chiefly England and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands) entered on the Holy Roman Empire's side to check French expansion (and, in the English case, to safeguard the Protestant succession). Other states joined the coalition opposing France and Spain in an attempt to acquire new territories, or to protect existing dominions. The war was fought not only in Europe, but also in North America, where the conflict became known to the English colonists as Queen Anne's War.

The War with Spain (1718-1720).

The War of the Quadruple Alliance was a minor European war fought between 1718 and 1720, mostly in Italy, between Spain on the one side, and the Quadruple Alliance of Austria, France, Great Britain, and the United Provinces. The conflict occurred as a result of the ambitions of King Philip V of Spain, his wife, Isabella Farnese, and his chief minister Giulio Alberoni in Italy, where the Spanish had traditional claims and Isabella several dynastic claims to advance; and for the crown of France, where Philip's infant nephew Louis XV was King, and his cousin the Duc d'Orléans was Regent. Opposition to Philip's ambitions led France, Britain, and The Seven United Netherlands, to join together in the Triple Alliance on January 4, 1717, and in November of that year Philip made war on Emperor Charles VI by invading the island of Sardinia, given to Austria by the Treaty of Utrecht ending the War of the Spanish Succession. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish advanced, invading Sicily, which had been awarded to the Duke of Savoy.

The War of right of search with Spain (Conflicts between 1739-1748)

The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748. After 1742 it merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession. Under the 1729 Treaty of Seville, the British had agreed not to trade with the Spanish colonies. To verify the treaty, the Spanish were permitted to board British vessels in Spanish waters. After one such incident in 1731, Robert Jenkins, captain of the ship Rebecca, claimed that the Spanish coast guard had severed his ear, and in 1738 exhibited it to the House of Commons — hence the name of the conflict. The British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declared war on October 23, 1739.

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) became inevitable after Maria Theresa of Austria had succeeded her father Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor in his Habsburg dominions in 1740, namely becoming Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria, and Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. For a woman to inherit such vast territories involved many complications, which were perceived long before, and Emperor Charles VI had long anticipated them, getting all the other powers to agree to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. The plan was for her to succeed to the hereditary Habsburg domains, and her husband, Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, to be elected Holy Roman Emperor.

The Seven years’ war (1756-1763)

The Seven Years' War (1756–1763), some of whose theatres are called the Pomeranian War and the French and Indian War, was hailed by Winston Churchill as the first world war, as it was the first conflict in human history to be fought around the globe. The war involved all major powers of Europe: Prussia, Great Britain (with British Colonies in North America), and Hanover were pitted against Austria, France (with New France), Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. Spain and Portugal were later drawn into the conflict, while a force from the neutral United Provinces of the Netherlands was attacked in India. The most tangible outcome of the war was the end of France’s power in the Americas (having only four islands left to them) and the emergence of Great Britain as the most powerful colonial power in the world.

The American war (1775-1783)

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a conflict that erupted between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen British colonies, who declared their independence as the United States of America in 1776. The war was the culmination of the American Revolution, a colonial struggle against political and economic policies of the British Empire. The war eventually widened far beyond British North America; many Native Americans also fought on both sides of the conflict

The Great French War (Conflicts between 1792-1815)

The Great French War is a sometimes-used term to describe the period of conflict beginning on April 20, 1792 and continuing until November 20, 1815. The conflict began when France declared war on Austria following a gradual increase in tensions following the French Revolution in 1789. The wars continued through several régime changes in France (beginning with the deposition of King Louis XVI in 1792 and continuing through the Terror instigated by the Jacobins under Maximilien de Robespierre). The Jacobins were in turn overthrown and an Executive Directory set up, eventually also giving way to the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte - first as First Consul then as Emperor. The period of the war prior to the seizure of power by Bonaparte in 1799 is generally referred to as the Revolutionary Wars and the period afterward is known as the Napoleonic Wars.

The Russian war (1854-1856)

The Crimean War lasted from 28 March 1854 until 1856 and was fought between Imperial Russia on one side and an alliance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Second French Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and (to some extent) the Ottoman Empire on the other. The majority of the conflict took place on the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea.