[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your article of November 22nd, on "Prince Edward," raises a question of great importance. It is necessary, or at least most desirable, that the Royal Family should be main- tained in a position of dignity, and even splendour; and yet the usefulness of the Monarchy, in a great degree, depends on its popularity, and this may be endangered by the dislike of large incomes paid out of the taxes to persons who do not work for them. The way out of the difficulty is to reverse the arrange- ment by which the nation—at the Restoration, I believe,—took over the domains of the Crown, granting the Civil List instead. No change can, or ought to, be made which should take effect during the present reign, but it would be one of the wisest and most truly conservative things that could be done, to provide that at the commencement of the next reign no Civil List shall be granted, but the Crown lands shall be restored to the Royal Family—any of them that the nation needs being bought back at their full value. It ought probably to be part of the arrangement, that the existing incomes of members of the Royal Family paid by the nation should cease, and their capitalised value paid over instead. Of course, it would be necessary to appoint trustees to take over this property on behalf of the Royal Family, and for the continuance and the exercise of the trust. I do not know whether the Royal Family would lose by this arrangement, but any sur- render of pecuniary claims would be much more than com- pensated by the moral advantage of their being no longer paid out of the taxes.—I am, Sir, &c., Belfast, September 4th. JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY.
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