NEWS OF THE WEEK.
LAST week was one of wordy warfare in the House of Com- mons : the present has had little eloquence to boast of, but much matter for future debate has been prepared.
The Civil List arrangement was introduced on Monday. Under the guidance of Mr. SPRING RICE, aided by the Tories and in- effectually opposed by the Radicals, the Committee have sanctioned the most expensive establishment provided for Royalty in England, since any authentic accounts of the cost of Kings and Queens have been laid before Parliament. A detailed statement will be found in subsequent pnges; and we need only mention in this place, that Queen VICTORIA'S Civil List exceeds GEORGE the Fourth's and WILLIAM the Fourth's by 10,0001.— that is nominally ; for when the difference in the value of money is considered, the excess of the sum to be voted to the Queen is very large indeed over that which the Fourth GEORGE got from a Parliament of boroughmongering Tories. Reckoning also the sums required by the late King to support the claims upon him, it appears that the maiden Queen, whose simple habits and economical education have been so loudly extolled, will be more amply " provided for" than her carousing and family-ridden uncle. No doubt, the courtly Whigs will take credit to themselves with their inexperienced mistress for the extravagant sums they are persuading Parliament to grant for maintaining her establish- ment; and questionless, also, her youthful Majesty will be well pleased. But men who look beyond the present time feel anxious for the consequences of this profusion to her whom the "fickle popular breath" and "tongue of hollow caunsel " now beguile. As for the Whig Ministers, their conduct in this matter furnishes another proof of their eagerness to excel Tory com- petitors for place in courtly subserviency. Eternally prating about economy, they outstrip their corrupt predecessors in the race of extravagance. With high-flown professions of principle ever on their lips, their acts exhibit a disregard of consistency and readiness to job, that would disgrace the Tories, who seldom make pretensions to political virtue. Sir ROBERT PEEL, in pottier, would scarcely have ventured to propose the lavish expenditure for the Royal establishment which Lord MELBOURNE and his Whigs will carry. Assuredly such a proposition from Sir RoBenT would have raised a storm of Whig wrath. But there is no Opposition : Tories in office, and Tories out, have the game to themselves ; and the People, defenceless in Parliament, are plundered.
The Civil List is a job on a very large scale : the week has pro- duced another, of minor amount, but as discreditable in prin- ciple as any hack of a court could conceive. The Dutchess of KENT can spend more than 22,0001. a year, and the Queen has been advised by her Ministers to ask Parliament for 8,0001. a year more, to support her mother. When the Duke of KENT married, 6,0001. a year was settled on his wife; after the Duke's death, another 6,0001. a year was granted her, for the education of the Princess VICTORIA; and in 1831, Earl GREY procured an additional grant of 10,0001. for the like purpose—making alto- gether 22,0001., which the Dutchess at present enjoys. The new proposition of the Whig Ministers is to add 8,0001. to the 22,0001.— making the whole income of the Dutchess of KENT 30,0001.: and this is to be done just when she is relieved from the expense of educating and maintaining her daughter, to defray which 16,0001. per annum had been voted—just when, in fact, she had gained an additional income to that amount, over and above what was considered a sufficient dowry at the time of her marriage. There ought to be no doubt that a revenue granted for the spe- cific purpose of educating the Princess VIcTOKIA was intended by Parliament to drop when its object had been effected ; but, either through carelessness or design, the act was so worded that the Dutchess retains it during the life of her daughter. It is in fact an annuity ou the life of the Queen, which the Dutchess of KENT may dispose of to-morrow, and settle the proceeds on the children of her first marriage. Such, it seems, is the dictum of the Crown Lawyers who were consulted by Lord MELBOURNE on the subject. There being no question as to the intention of the Legislature that this sum was only to be paid till the education of the Princess VICTORIA should be completed, it would have been decent to abandon the legal claim arising from a blunder or a fraud, before asking Parliament to grant an addi- tional income : but there has been an absence of every thing like delicacy in the management of this affair. The pretence on which the 8,0001. a year is called for is, not that the Dutchess requires it—nobody can suppose that 22,0001. a year is insufficient for her, now that she is relieved of the expense of maintaining and educa- ting her daughter, if it was sufficient before ; but Parliament is asked to pay the Dutchess in gold coin for the motherly care she has bestowed on her daughter ! She has not taught the Queen evil habits, or ruined her health by dissipation; and therefore she ought to have 8,0001. a year as a reward for such extraordinary virtue. Thus it ever is—money, money, any pretence for filching cash out of the public pocket. Every thing is brought to this vulgar and base standard. In the course of a discussion on the Queen's Message in the House of Peers, Lord MELBOURNE and Lord BROUGHAM had a tilting, which has amused the public. Lord BROUGHAM, it is understood, considers himself ill-used by the Whigs in power—he thinks that Lord MELBOURNE has jockied him. Hence soreness on the part of the Ex-Chancellor, which has broken out recently on two or three occasions, but particularly on Tuesday last, when he threw cold water on the Premier's display of burning loyalty. Lord BROUGHAM advanced Parliamentary and proper reasons for not pledging the Lords beforehand to any measure that the Commons might pass to augment the Dutchess of KENfe income ; and in the course of his speech he alluded to the Dutchess as " Queen-mother." Lord MELBOURNE, in not very good taste, exclaimed, " Not Queen-mother—mother of the Queen!" Thus taunted, Lord BROUGHAM took the opportunity of hinting that Lord MELBOURNE had become an accomplished courtier of late, and that his tongue was attuned to flattery. The Premier retorted the charge; and said that when the Ex- Chancellor had the opportunity, nobody was more ready to gloze, and fawn, and bend the knee. Lord BROUGHAM protested that flattery of kings had ever been as foreign to his habits as repug- nant to his nature. He forgot for the moment some unhappy passages of the year 1834, which his " noble friend" too freshly remembered. Certainly, however, it is not with Lord BROUGHAM, but with Lord MELBOURNE, that the fruits of flattery and courtier- craft remain.
The rest of the Parliamentary business does not require parti- cular notice; but, to give an idea of its multifarious character, a list of some of the subjects which occupied more or less atten- tion is subjoined,—
Education of Negroes, Recovery of Tenements,
Government of Canada, Payment of Rates by Electors,
The Irish Poor, Irish Education,
The Irish Church, King of Hanover's Pension, Rathcormac, Fictitious Votes, Discussions on Petitions, Access of Parents to t':eir
Case of the Glasgow Weavers, Children, Operation of the Poor-law, Copyright,
Education Committee, Municipal Boundaries,
Election Expenses, Scottish Licences, County. rates, Increase of the Navy, New South Wales, Power of Russia, with sundry others, too tedious even to catalogue.
