THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE'S, &c, ANNUITY BILL. (Hansard, 5 August 1850)

§ MR. HUME
rose to propose an Amendment. He would move that, instead of 12,000l., the sum proposed to be allotted to the Duke of Cambridge, it should be reduced to 8,000l. As 12,000l. had been proposed on the plea of the charities which a Royal Duke was expected to give, lie would refer to a statement which had been made to him bearing somewhat on the point. It was stated that labourers' wages were down to 8s. a week, and that the sum which it was proposed to give to this young man, who held a commission, and who stood in no closer relation to the Queen than cousin, would, at 8s. a week, maintain 676 families for a year; multiplying this number 5, it was found that 2,880 persons might be maintained by (he money. The salary of the First Lord of the Treasury was 5,000l., that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was 5,000l., and that of the President of the Board of Trade 2,000l., making altogether 12.000l.; and the House was now about to give to this young scion of Royalty a sum equal to the whole of the salaries of those three great officers of the State. Those who supported this measure might think that they were thereby upholding the cause of Royalty, but he could assure them that they were doing everything in their power to injure Royalty. In 1849 the annual amount paid out of the Consolidated Fund for the Queen's Civil List was 385,000l., and pensions under the 1 and 2 Vic, c. 2, 11,600l., making 396,600l., while the pensions to members of the Royal Family amounted in the last year to 249,000l., under the following beards:—King of Hanover, 21,000l.; Duke of Cambridge, 27,000l.; Duchess of Gloucester, 16,000l.; the King of the Belgians, 50,000l.; the late Queen Dowager, 75,000l.; the Duchess of Kent, 30,000l.; and Prince Albert. 30,000l. Under the head of Naval and Military Services there were also annual pensions amounting to 215,687l., making a grand total for Civil and Military Pensions, and Grants to Members of the Royal Family, of 834 464,687l. He did think it was high time the country Gentlemen should reflect whether the policy of granting so large a sum for such objects was not most indiscreet, especially when it was known that amidst these extravagant grants, which appeared to be only the beginning of a series of similar pensions, there prevailed great distress among large portions of the population. He would venture to tell them that, should any such circumstances recur in this country as were witnessed in the years 1842 and 1843, when half the population of the kingdom were thrown out of employment, and when distress had driven large masses of the people to acts of violence which it was difficult to stop, the consequences of these extravagant measures would recoil upon them with a vengeance which it would be impossible for them to resist. It was their duty, therefore, to guard against these possible results. Looking at the vast sums appropriated to pensions paid to the descendants of the Earl of Camperdown, Lord Abercromby, Earl Nelson, and a variety of other persons, and which amounted in the whole to not less than 245,000l. a year; looking; too at the salaries of Her Majesty's Ministers, and other expenses of the country, I he could not help thinking that the conduct of the House, in adding to these enormous charges on the resources of the country was most censurable. He was sorry he had not brought down to the House a plate which was published last week in Punch. On one side of the plate the noble Lord the First Minister of the Crown was represented standing at a cask, and, with a forbidding countenance, doling out driblets from the spigot to a half-famished public clerk, whose starving family were represented in the corner supplicating the I mercy of the noble Lord. This was a fair I representation of what was now being done by the Government in reducing to the utmost possible extent the salaries of all the humbler servants of the State. On the other side of the plate the noble Lord was pictured as ministering in the most inviting manner at the bunghole, where the Duke of Cambridge was represented as eagerly receiving into his hat this golden stream of 12,000l.; there being in the corner a crowd of Royal pensioners, who were looking on with the most gratified countenances. [An Hon. MEMBER: The King of Hanover.] Yes, the King of Hanover was one of them, and a very ex 835 cellent likeness of the King it was. It might he supposed that in mentioning this, he (Mr. Hume) was treating the subject with ridicule; but it was one too serious to be dealt with in that manner. When the Royal Family was thus held up to the derision of the public, he must in justice ascribe it to those who encouraged such votes as that which was now under the consideration of the House. They were to blame, not he. He had done all that it was in his power to do to stop this extravagance. He had tried every argument to prevail on the noble Lord not to proceed in this course; and to the country Gentlemen he had also addressed himself; hut it had been in vain. Wishing to record his vote against the measure, he should divide the House on the Amendment.

§ COLONEL SIBTHORP
had already recorded his vote in favour of the grant of 12,000l., and he would be glad to do so again. He was as much in favour of economy as the hon. Member for Montrose; but he could not forget who the late Duke of Cambridge was—he could not forget that he was a thorough Englishman, and that he was the descendant of their great and good King the lamented George III. He was old enough to remember that Monarch's love for the Church, the law, and the constitution of England. He could also speak of the benevolence and kind-heartedness of the late Duke of Cambridge, than whom a more excellent and more charitable man never lived, and no one had ever left this world more regretted by all classes than he did. This was a noble example to follow, and he did not think the sum proposed was at all too much for the maintenance of the Prince, his son. He had the greatest satisfaction in supporting the vote.

§ MR. BRIGHT
proposed the adoption of a clause to the effect—That in case the Duke of Cambridge be in receipt of any salary or emolument under the Crown, the amount of such sum shall be deducted from the annuity now granted. The noble Lord at the head of the Government had not on that night said anything with re- 836 spect to the grant of 12,000l., considering no doubt that he had defended it sufficiently on a former occasion. The defence of it was left to the hon. and gallant Member for Lincoln, who, with characteristic avoidance of everything like logic, said he voted for the grant because the Duke of Cambridge had a good grandfather. Why, the same thing could probably be said of the hon. and gallant Member himself. He also said the Duke of Cambridge was of English blood; and he could have no objection to that; but there was other English blood through the country, and it had a right to be considered. There was no political party in the country in favour of this vote; and he had no doubt that before five years, or perhaps five months, the noble Lord would recommend that certain offices with salaries attached to them should be conferred on the Duke of Cambridge. They were all aware of the enormous sum that was granted to the late Queen Dowager; but he admitted that the circumstances which came to their knowledge since her death, made her stand higher in their estimation than in her lifetime. He thought she would have been as happy with 20,000l. a year as with 100,000l., and there were complaints through the country, that while she had that large sum, the people were suffering and discontented. They should take care that those burdens were not added to until they became intolerable, and thus cause the destruction of institutions that were deemed necessary for the public safety. Let them at least arrange that this sum of 12,000l. should be the highest sum he was to receive under any circumstances. Many persons in receipt of pensions had allowed those pensions to merge in the emoluments of offices conferred on them, and why not have this principle applied to the Duke of Cambridge?

§ LORD J. RUSSELL
objected to the 837 proviso of the hon. Gentleman, on the ground, that without wishing that any large emolument should be enjoyed by the Duke of Cambridge, he thought it would be most inexpedient to say that whatever his military services might be, and however ready he showed himself to go to any post to which he might be ordered, the House of Commons would take care he should have no remuneration; and that his income should not be increased, although it was held by that House that the Duke of Cambridge should give his services to the country, and employ himself in a manner honourable to himself and useful to his country. The hon. Gentleman had urged arguments which might be pushed to any extent. The hon. Gentleman said that Queen Adelaide had 100,000l. a year, and that she might very well have lived on 20,000l.; but the argument that her income, if drawn from a suffering people and paid out of the taxes, might have fed 500 or 1,000 labourers at 8s. a week, would have been as applicable to 20,000l. as to 100,000l.; and, if the hon. Gentleman should succeed in his present proposition, it might still be said, why should a Prince of the blood be paid 8,000l. a year, which would support so many people? He could give no very logical reason why any particular sum should be paid; but he certainly thought that 8,000l. a year might as well be criticised by the hon. Gentleman who proposed the other night 5,000l., or any other Gentleman who proposed 3,000l. He believed that the people of this country, so far from making those comparisons and calculations which the hon. Gentleman made, felt an attachment to the Royal blood, and that they were pleased, and not envious, when they saw the Duke of Cambridge performing his duties in a manner becoming his position.

§ COLONEL SIBTHORP
hoped the hon. Member for Manchester would look after his operatives as well as the late lamented Duke of Cambridge had looked after the welfare of his fellow creatures.