3 JULY 1830, Page 13

THE CIVIL LIST—THE REGENCY.

TitErti.: are two subjects that at the present moment have been presented forcibly to the public attention—the nature and extent of the provision to be made for the support of the Crown ; and the arrangements requisite in the event of a change of its owner. Any attempt at reconsideration of th-J Civil List, after it has been once regulated, is, for the most part, met by the argument, that it is of the nature of a compact between the King and I lie People, to ■ \Inch 1 he latter having. illicit consent ed, they have no right, from any motivo or advantage to themselves, to \Vali- draw from it. Nothing, it is true, Call 1/0 more idle and worthless than this argument. For what is the alleged compact, but an act of Parliament, in which the Legislature agrees to assign certain sums for the support of one of its ; and if t Lys( MUM.; ;11.0 found, on trial, to be inadeiputte, or more than adequate, what shall hinder the Legislature from passing a second act to make good the delicieney, or to appropriate I he superfluity to other uses ? But, worthless though it be, the pretence lots generally had consider- able weight ; and, therefore, it I he more behoves Parliament and the People it/ SCe, NY hi I I hi 0 I iiiii s are yet unsigned, that flat Civil List be arranged on right principles. To the decent, the splendid entertainment Sovereign and his household, no man in Eng- land objects ; lad no comfort, much less honour, can accrue to royalty from wastefld extdiyagance. The last Civil List was enor- mous bey0Ild all former example ; and, in forming the new

List, that precedent yin, we trust, be used not as a guide to show what to follow, but as a beacon, to point out what to shun.

Thought for the future is not less needful than provision for the present. 'We cannot enter into the Vit'WS of those who would FerSnaLIC us that tile consiileration or a 1 f2:eney must be disagree- able to the 1)(.1 Si 111al at the Sovereign. Is it disagreeable to the feelings of a private individual to ;orange the distribution of Iis property ? Would 1 he healthiest ill I he nation, and the youngest, deem himself insulted when advised by a considerate trieed to make his will ? Would the advice he held to imply either t hat his days were more uncertain or nearer an end than those of his adviser ? If, indeed, the counsel were tendered when sickness had bowed hint down, the feebleness of disease might render it disagreeable to a weak Ill hid, mid to a weal; mind only. Those who

speak of the indelieaey of pressing on the all of Ins Majesty the propriety of arranging the administration of Government in the event of his demise, must entertain a strange opinion of the royal intellect. 11`e would scruple to pay so poor a compliment as the arg,unicut implies to the most insigiuticinn of our acquaintance.

When speaking of the Hegel-fey, three or four Nvecks ago, we observed that precedent had settled the it of it so entirely, that they admitted of almost no discte::-.ion. On that occasion, I owever, ire committed an inadvertialev respecting the person on whom tile ihlities of Regent would devolve, in the event of the de- mise of the Crown during the miniAlly ii the prestamitive heir. -VVe said, that as a matter or coin-se the Duke of ComnErmAND, as

xt in the succession, would be the person. Wu forgot that the

would, in flit event, have duties to p.,rierni elsewhere, in- ccOni)atitile with the office of ltegent here. 'The circumstance of Ilanover's lit-lug a male rad. had, fin- the mulavid, escaped our niemoty. As the Duke, by the expre:;s conditions on which the sovereignty or that country is held, must 1.e its Kin!,, to the ex- clusion ii lii present heir presumptive and of heirs female gene- rally, it is quite obvious he cannot be Rcg.ent ui Eolrland. It would be contrary to all constitutional principle to intrust the regulation ef our atillirs to a foreign and itelopendent Prince. The arrangement of a Itegertcy, in consequenc.. of this accident in the conditi;a1 of the nearest heir, is somewhat complex. But, if we (-ennui. get the nearest, we may take the Prince who is next in suecession. Even that point, lumvever, settled, there remains anutlwr of nearly equal importance. In the event of his Majesty's d -mite without heirs of his own body, the Queen Consult would be excluded from any share in the Government, for the piam reason that she had no interest in the estate nor in the heir. The custody ()film heir would be given to her mother, the custody of the kingdom to the Duke of Susssx. But in the event of her Majesty having children (a case la. no means impossible), then the custody of the infant would vest in the Queen Dowager, and the Duke of SUSSEX would be Regent. In the former case, and in the latter also it' the heir were a female, the Duke of CUMBER- LAND would be King of Hanover; and if the heir were a male, his Royal Highness would most likely continue Regent of Han- over. Where lies the difficulty in framing a statute which shall provide for either of these contingencies? and why may it not be- passed this year as easily as half a dozen of years hence ?