CONTENTS. 1. "An Historical Sketch and Account of the Expences incurred under the heads of Civil List, Pensions, and Public Offices; with some observations on the conduct of the Modern Re- 2. "Remarks on the Meeting held 5th Nov. 1809, to celebrate the acquittal of Messrs. Hardy, J. H. Tooke, Thelwall and others, in November 1794, with an abstract of the Facts proved on those Trials; and also of the Confession of James Watt, executed at Edinburgh for High Treason in 1798.". page 67 3. "A short Comparative Sketch of our Practical Constitution in ancient times and the present: with some observations on cer- tain assertions made by the Modern Reformers.".. page 89 4. "Observations on the Resolutions passed by certain friends of Parliamentary Reform, at Bodmin on the 8th of July, 8. "Remarks on the Proceedings of the Lords and Commons in the late Parliament, respecting the Catholics; addressed to Protestants of all Persuasions and Communions; with a Sup- plement, respecting the Parliamentary Proceedings in the Ses- 1. A SHORT HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ACCOUNT OF THE EXPENCES INCURRED UNDER THE HEADS OF CIVIL LIST, PENSIONS AND PUBLIC OFFICES; WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE MODERN REFORMERS; IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND. My dear Sir, January, 1810. IN compliance with your repeated request, I address a letter to you, containing some accounts and details respecting the expences of the Civil and Pension List, the establishments of the great Offices of state, the sources from which those expences are supplied, and the measures taken from time to time by Government or Parliament for their economical regulation. I most perfectly agree with you in opinion, as tỏ the urgent call for a public exposition of the real truth. on these subjects, and the probable utility of such an attempt as the present, at this important crisis; for we 'all know that a set of gentlemen, associated as " political reformers," have employed themselves with unusual industry in disseminating, by every possible mode of circulation, statements respecting the expences and management of these establishments, tending to degrade and render odious the Government and Parliament of the country; statements founded on such gross misre presentations of facts, that it needs more than common A candour to believe (what would indeed be a poor justification) that they have arisen wholly from the want of proper information. Before I enter into my sketch of our Civil List and other establishments, it may not be unnecessary to give you, specifically and in detail, the general catalogue of grievances, which are studiously impressed on the minds of the unwary, through the medium of weekly publications, in debates at taverns, and in private society. They say, that "the expences of the Civil List, "detailed in that magazine of corruption, the Red Book, "are unnecessary and enormous: t "The pension list excessive and unlimited: "That the salaries and establishments of office are beyond what is necessary for the public service." After having thus prepared the minds of their hearers to believe, that every regulation, in every department, is vicious in the principle of its institution, and is the efficient cause of an unprincipled and extravagant expenditure; the next assertion is, "That all this unnecessary and corrupt expence is defrayed by taxes levied on the public:" and lastly, they assert, "That Parliament, the constitutional guardian of "the public purse, through a defective state of the representation, if not the partaker, is, by its silence “and inactivity, an accomplice in this glaring system "of iniquity." Their conclusion from these premises is, that " Reform," RADICAL "Reform" in the representation of the people, is the only remedy for evils so desperate and universal. I must, therefore, request you, my dear Sir, during your perusal of what I have to offer to your consider ation, to keep constantly within your view, the above assertions. Upon them the advocates of Reform rely, as a principal feature of their case. It is by arguments derived from such assertions, that they have misled the judgments or inflamed the passions of the unwary and uninformed: and it is by the truth or falsehood of these actual assertions, that their own claim to the character which they assume, namely, that of temperate, wellinformed, wise and safe directors of the public opinion, is to be estimated. I shall, in the first place, call your attention to the expenditure of the Civil List, which includes a very considerable proportion of those salaries contained in the Red Book, so confidently exhibited to the public as an object of suspicion and dislike. CIVIL LIST. "The ordinary revenue of the king," says Mr. Justice Blackstone, " is such as has subsisted time out "of mind in the Crown, or has been granted by Parlia"ment, by way of purchase or exchange, for such of "the King's inherent hereditary revenues as were found "inconvenient to the subject." It is most clear, from this description, that the ordinary revenue of the King, charged with its present burthens, namely, the civil list establihment, is as much his property, and held by him on as legal and valid a title, as that of any individual subject in the kingdom. Mr. Justice Blackstone further states, that, in the late reigns, the produce of certain branches of the excise and customs, with other articles, comprising the whole hereditary revenue of the Crown, and also £120,000 per annum in money, were settled on the King for life, for the support of his Majesty's household, and the honour and dignity of his Crown: Parliament undertaking to supply any deficiency below £800,000 per annum, the King receiving the surplus beyond it; which probably was considerable, as it appears from the same respectable authority (Blackstone) that these duties were computed to have produced, in some years, one million. But his present Majesty, soon after his accession, having spontaneously signified his consent, "that his own hereditary revenue might be disposed of "as might best conduce to the satisfaction and utility "of the public," and having graciously accepted the limited sum of £800,000 per aunum (charged with life annuities of £77,000 per annum) for the use of the Civil List; “ the said hereditary and other revenues are "now carried, entered and made a part of the aggregate "fund," in the general revenue of the country. Stat. 1 Geo. 3. c. 1. 66 See Mr. Blackstone computed at the time he wrote, that "the public was a gainer of upwards of £100,000 per "annum by this disinterested bounty of his Majesty." By which I understand him to mean, his voluntary acceptance of £800,000 per annum in lieu of the revenues enjoyed by his predecessor. At two subsequent periods additions have been made the total being at this moment £960,000 per annum, exclusive of the King's proportion of the fees of offices in the Exchequer, regulated or suppressed by Stat. 23, Geo. 3. of which I shall say more hereafter. The amount of these is not certain, but probably, on an average of late years, is about £25,000 per annum. It will appear, from the following statement, that Mr. Justice Blackstone has not under-rated the advantage derived by the public from his Majesty's acceptance of a limited annuity, in lieu of the hereditary and other revenues enjoyed by his predecessor. The account from which my authority is derived was laid before Parliament in 1802, and is in my possession. It appears from thence, that the total produce of the hereditary and other revenues enjoyed by his late Majesty, and in |