HC Deb 08 July 1806 vol 7 cc968-9
Mr. Hobhouse

brought up the report of the resolutions of the committee of supply, settling the augmentations to be made to the provisions for the different branches of the royal family, &c. On their being read a second time,

Mr. Ridley Colborne rose

to make a few observations on the nature of the grants which the resolutions contained. He thought the house should pause before they voted away such large sums of the public money, at a period of such peculiar difficulty. Some of the royal dukes were already in possession of regiments, rangerships, and emoluments arising from various offices, and therefore there was the less occasion for this addition to their income. He did not allude to all the grants, some of them might be very proper, and that to her royal highness the duchess of Gloucester, he considered as too small; but he thought the emoluments which different branches of the royal family derived from offices which they held, should be taken into account.

Lord H. Petty

said, that though he gave the hon. gent. full credit for, his feelings of œconomy, yet he trusted, from what he had stated on a former night, that the house would not consider the present as a lavish expenditure of the public money, at a period which called for the strictest œconomy; and mentioned, with regard to two royal persons, that certain tables and other allowances had been lately suppressed, which had cost the public nearly as much as their additional allowances would do.

Mr. Rose

expressed his full assent to the bill; and observed, that in respect to some of the princes, the discontinuance of their allowances under the civil list, would amount to more than the augmentation in their incomes. He considered the votes to be extremely moderate, when he called to mind that 50 years ago the allowance to the then duke of Gloucester was 15,000l. As to the offices which some of the princes might hold at the royal pleasure, they should not be taken into contemplation, when the question was respecting a permanent provision.—The report was then agreed to, and bills ordered to be brought in on the first four resolutions.