HC Deb 02 March 1827 vol 16 cc818-20

On the order of the day for the second reading of the Duke: and Duchess of Clarence's Annuity Bill,

Sir R. Heron

observed, that the duke of Clarence ought to be satisfied with what the country had already done for him. The hon. member concluded by moving, as an amendment, "That the bill be read a second time this day six months."

Mr. E. Davenport

seconded the motion. When the distress which prevailed in the manufacturing towns was considered, ministers came, he thought, with a very bad grace to propose a grant of this nature. There was one contingency not provided for by the bill. Suppose his majesty should contract another matrimonial alliance [a laugh]. What then was to become of this 9,000l. a year. Such an occurrence was not at all improbable; though it might form a very good joke to the gentlemen on the other side, though, as he thought, not a very decorous one. The duke's salary had already been increased several times upon the ground of the high price of provisions.

Mr. Wells

said, he could not conscientiously approve of any addition to the salary of the duke of Clarence.

Mr. Alderman Waithman

said, he would not object to a liberal allowance to every branch of the royal family. Notwithstanding the distress felt throughout the country, he would not now oppose a grant for that purpose; but he looked upon the present proposition as one of the most ill-timed measures that was ever submitted to parliament. The very day it was introduced, the House had heard from the right hon. gentleman a most gloomy description of the condition of the people. In his magisterial capacity, upwards of eighty persons had been summoned before him for non-payment of church and poor rates, which could not be enforced against more than ten. He was astonished that the right hon. gentleman should have courage to make the proposition on the very evening when a committee of emigration was moved for, to provide means for sending the industrious but distressed people out of the country.

Mr. Monck

described the various sources of the duke's income, and contended that his royal highness had already a sufficiency to support his dignity. The additional allowance was most unseemly in the present state of public distress.

Mr. Hume

wished to ask the right hon. gentleman how, as an honest man, he; could propose such a vote, when he must know that as a financier, he was bank rupt? It was a mean and scandalous waste of the public money. If he could lay on the table of the House accounts of the distress occasioned by taxation, he could prove that, for the 9,000l. proposed, fifteen thousand persons had been turned out of their homes.

The House divided: For the Second Reading 128: For the Amendment 39.