SUPPLY—CORONATION. (Hansard, 31 August 1831)

§ Mr. Spring Rice,
in moving the first vote—namely, "that the sum of 50,000l. be granted to his Majesty to defray the expenses which may probably be incurred at the Coronation of their Majesties," remarked, that this sum was about one-fifth of the expense which had been incurred at the former Coronation. In fact, this vote had been made out in the strictest accordance with the severest principles of economy, and it was expected that the expenses of the approaching Coronation would, instead of exceeding, be rather under the amount of this estimate. The ceremonial would be conducted upon the most economical scale, so that perhaps, as he had just said, there would even be some saving upon this estimate.

Mr. Hume
was ready to admit, that if a Coronation at all took place, the vote now moved for the approaching ceremony was moderate compared with the expense attendant upon the Coronation of George 4th; but he could not help expressing great regret that his Majesty's Government should have thought it necessary to call for such a sum as 50,000l. He should himself be one of the warmest advocates of such a step if the Crowning of our most gracious Sovereign could in the slightest degree add to the respect and the affection with which he was regarded by his subjects; but believing 930 it would be attended with a directly contrary effect, he could not restrain the expression of his disapprobation of the vote. He did not blame the present Ministers for the manner in which they brought forward the vote; on the contrary, he believed they made the whole of their arrangements with a view to save expense; nevertheless, he could not bring himself to regard such an appropriation of 50,000l. otherwise than as completely throwing it away, and he was quite sure that it would be infinitely more satisfactory to the people if the ceremonial were gone through without such an expenditure of the public money. He must, therefore, protest against the grant as altogether unnecessary.

§ Mr. Hunt
said, that if the hon member for Middlesex was sincere in his opposition to the vote, he would divide the House upon it, and if the hon. Member did, he would divide with him.

Mr. Hume
did not understand the hon. member for Preston. He thought it right to give his opinion on the vote, but it did not necessarily follow, that he was thereupon to put the House to the trouble of dividing without the prospect of any useful result.

§ Mr. Spring Rice
said, that the coronation of the Sovereign of this country had been uniformly looked upon as a necessary ceremonial. Those who contended that his Majesty should be privately crowned in the House of Peers, in order to avoid the expense of the public ceremonial, did not recollect that the ceremony had not merely relation to the monarch, but that it had also relation to the people—that it involved a contract between the Sovereign and his people, and that every class of the community in this country had the deepest interest in that contract. If the coronation were to be conducted privately, and in a less expensive manner, in the House of Peers, as had been suggested, then observations might be made as to popular principles which were entirely repugnant to the measures to which such observations might have reference.

Mr. O'Connell
said, that it was perfectly consistent for the hon. member for Preston to doubt the sincerity of his hon. friend the member for Middlesex, if it were the fact that men were accustomed to judge of others by themselves. It had been always considered necessary in every reign, that a coronation should take place, 931 as a solemn recognition on the one hand, of the rights of the sovereign, and as an equally solemn acknowledgment on his part, of his duty towards his subjects. He was sure that no monarch would make that recognition with greater sincerity than the monarch who happily reigned over this country at present. If the hon. member for Middlesex were to divide the House on this estimate, he would divide against him.

§ Mr. Briscoe
approved of the vote, and expressed his gratitude to the Government for having made out the estimate on such a reduced scale. He entirely agreed with the right hon. Gentleman, the Secretary to the Treasury, that the coronation of the monarch was a necessary ceremonial, but he did by no means approve of its being made an idle and expensive pageant.

§ Mr. Dixon
understood the hon. member for Middlesex did not object to the items of expense, but to the general amount of the vote, and the hon. Member also contended, that the ceremony of the coronation might be conducted with the utmost satisfaction without any thing like the expense contemplated. He agreed with the hon. Member, supposing that he did not wish the ceremony to be altogether abrogated.

Mr. Hume
had not said a word about having the ceremony performed in the House of Peers. All he had done was, to protest against the expense of it. He regretted, that his Majesty's Ministers had been driven to this folly by the expression of taunts from the Opposition in another place, which they should have had the firmness to resist. If his Majesty were crowned in the Abbey, at an expense of 5,000l., the people of the country would be much better satisfied.