On Thursday night, the First Lord of the Treasury, in
moving that the Speaker leave the chair to consider the Royal Message as to Prince Albert Victor and Princess Louise of Wales, made a statement which showed that while in 1837 the allowances out of the Consolidated Fund for members of the Royal family were 2277,000, they now amount to only 2152,000. He showed that, judging by all the precedents, the Queen had no notice that Parliament expected her to provide for any of her grandchildren, and that in 1843 Sir R. Peel even convinced Mr. Hume that claims for the children of younger sons of a former Sovereign were made as of right, and should be admitted by Parliament. Nevertheless, the Queen had expressed her willingness to waive all claim for any grandchildren except the children of the Prince of Wales; and what the Committee proposed was to accept this offer, and to vote £36,000 a year to the Prince of Wales, out of which, as a trust-fund, he should be required to make provision for his children. Mr. Labouchere moved his amendment resisting the motion in a speech more moderate than he usually makes, and was seconded by Mr. Storey in one which ex- travagantly exaggerated the Queen's wealth. Mr. Gladstone, in a most impressive and stately speech, claimed for the Throne the endowments which would support it in splendour, and insisted on the admirable way in which the Royal family, including especially the Prince of Wales, had performed their duties, and on the absence of all those irritating claims for debts with which in former times we were so familiar.
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