[BRITISH S E R V I C E casual revenues hitherto vested in the crown, and inde- increased from £385,000 to £470,000. In the application pendent of Parliament. The revenues of the duchy of of this sum the number of classes of expenditure to which Lancaster were still retained by the crown. In return for separate amounts are to be appropriated is increased from this surrender and the diminished sum voted, the civil list five to six. The following is the new arrangement of was relieved from all the charges relating rather to the classes:—1st class, Their Majesties’ privy purse, £110,000; civil Government than to the support of the dignity of the 2nd class, salaries of His Majesty’s household and retired crown and the royal household. The future expendi- allowances, £125,800; 3rd class, expenses of His Majesty’s ture was divided into five classes, and a fixed annual sum household, £193,000; 4th class, works (the interior was appropriated to each class. The pension list was repair and decoration of Buckingham Palace and Windsor reduced to £75,000. The king resisted an attempt on Castle), £20,000; 5th class, royal bounty, alms, and the part of the select committee to reduce the salaries of special services, £13,200; 6th class,. unappropriated, the officers of state on the grounds that this touched £8000. The system relating to civil list pensions, his prerogative, and the ministry of Earl Grey yielded to established by the Civil List Act, 1837, continues to apply, but the pensions are not to be regarded as chargehis remonstrance. The civil list of Queen Victoria was settled on the able on the sum paid for the civil list. The committee same principles as that of William IV. A considerable also advised that the mastership of the Buckhounds should reduction was made in the aggregate annual not be continued; and His Majesty, on the advice of his Queen , Snm voted, from £510,000 to £385,000, and ministers, agreed to accept their recommendation. The maintenance of the royal hunt thus ceases to be a charge 8 tlie ensio11 list was civil*list’ P separated from the ordinary C ‘V " civil list. The civil list proper was divided on the civil list. The annuities of £20,000 to the prince into the following five classes, with a fixed sum appropriated of Wales, of £10,000 to the princess of Wales, and of £18,000 to His Majesty’s three daughters, are not to each:— included in the civil list, though they are conferred by Privy purse ..... £60,000 the same Act. Other grants made by special Acts of Salaries of household . . . 131,260 Expenses of household . . . 172,500 Parliament to members of the royal family are also Royal bounty, &c. .... 13,200 excluded from it. (h. s. s.) Unappropriated .... 8,040 Civil Service.—British Empire. — The civil In addition the Queen might, on the advice of her ministers, grant pensions up to £1200 per annum, in service is the generic name given to all public servants. accordance with a resolution of the House of Commons of It is the machinery by which the executive, through the 18th February 1834, “to such persons as have just claims various administrations, carries on the central government on the royal beneficence, or who, by their personal services of the country. The cost of the civil services has increased to the crown, by the performance of duties to the public, or of late years. The net total of the estimates for the civil by their useful discoveries in science and attainments in services for 1901-2 was £23,630,120, as opposed to literature and art, have merited the gracious consideration £22,838,808 for 1900-1. The increase (after the adjustof the sovereign and the gratitude of their country.” The ment of certain items) was £783,812, as opposed to the service of these pensions increased the annual sum devoted increase of £659,143 in 1900-1. The appointments to the civil service until the year to support the dignity of the crown and the expenses of 1855 were made by nomination, with an examination not the household to about £409,000. _ Tim list of pensions must be laid before Parliament within thirty days of 20th sufficient to form an intellectual or even a physical test. June. Thus the civil list was reduced in amount, and It was only after much consideration and almost years of relieved from the very charges which gave it its name discussion that the nomination system was abandoned. as distinct from the statement of military and naval Various commissions reported on the civil service, and charges. It now really only dealt with the support of the Orders in Council were issued. Finally in 1855 a qualifying dignity and honour of the crown and the royal household. examination of a stringent character was instituted, and in The arrangement was most successful, and during the 1870 the principle of open competition was adopted as a last three reigns there was no application to Parliament general rule. On the report of the Playfair Commission (1876), an Order in Council was issued dividing the civil for the discharge of debts incurred on the civil list. The death of Queen Victoria rendered it necessary that service into an upper and lower division. The Order in a renewed provision should be made for the civil list; and Council directed that a lower division should be constiKing Edward VII., following former precedents, tuted, and men and boy clerks holding permanent positions replaced the temporary assistants and writers. The 1 1ace< Act i unreservedly at the disposal of ParliaC 1901 P ’ ’ ment his hereditary revenues. A select com- “ temporary ” assistant was not found to be advantageous mittee of the House of Commons was appointed to to the service. In December 1886 a new class of assistant consider the provisions of the civil list for the crown, clerks was formed to replace the men copyists. In 1887 and to report also on the question of grants for the the Bidley Commission reported on the civil service honourable support and maintenance of Her Majesty the establishment. In 1890 two Orders in Council were issued Queen and the members of the royal family. The based on the reports of the Ridley Commission, which sat committee in their conclusions were guided to a consider- from 1886 to 1890. The first Order constituted what is able extent by the actual civil list expenditure during the now known as the second division of the civil service. last ten years of the last reign, and made certain recom- The second Order in Council concerns the officers of the 1st mendations which, without undue interference with the class, and provision was made for the possible promotion sovereign’s personal arrangements, tended towards in- of the second division clerks to the first division after creased” efficiency and economy in the support of the eight years’ service. The whole system is under the administration of the sovereign’s household and the honour and dignity of the crown. On their report was based the Civil List Act, Civil Service Commissioners, and power is given to them, 1901, which established the new civil list. The system with the approval of the Treasury, to prescribe the subjects that the hereditary revenues should as before be paid into of examination, limits of age, &c. The age is fixed for the exchequer and be part of the consolidated fund was compulsory retirement at sixty-five. In exceptional cases a maintained. The amount payable for the civil list was prolongation of five years is within the powers of the Civil 98
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