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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 692: AUGMENTATION OF THE CIVIL LIST.
By Edward Farr
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The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

AUGMENTATION OF THE CIVIL LIST.

At this time no change had taken place in the indisposition of the king. The general impression on the minds of the people, indeed, was that his recovery was hopeless, that the remainder of his days would be spent in mental debility. This impression was heightened when, in the house of commons, in a committee to consider the question of the king’s household, Mr. Perceval stated that, according to the physicians, the expectation of his majesty’s recovery was diminished. Under these circumstances he laid before the house the measures proposed to be adopted. Several objections were taken to his plan; but the following resolutions were finally agreed to:—“1. That, for making provision for the due arrangement of his majesty’s household, and for the exercise of the royal authority during the continuance of his majesty’s indisposition, and for the purpose of enabling the queen to meet the increased expenses to which, in consequence of such indisposition, her majesty may be exposed, there be granted out of the consolidated fund of Great Britain the yearly sum of £70,000. 2. That it is expedient that provision be made for defraying the expenses incident to the assumption of the personal exercise of the royal authority by his royal highness the prince regent, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty.” The bill framed upon these resolutions encountered some opposition, but they passed triumphantly. A large addition was also subsequently made to the income of the princesses; and it was in vain that some honourable members pleaded internal distress, and urged that such demands were not needed: the courtly zeal of parliament prevailed.