Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/221

Ch.XI.] Revenue. 201 trations, and the disgusting exactions of papal authority. Some of these were partly founded in law ; but the grand defect of the system was, that it afforded excuses for the oppressions of tyranny, and was grounded on principles inconsistent with the freedom of the constitution. It is true, observes Sir John Sinclair («), that these burdens did not exist at once, and that sometimes one mode of exaction prevailed, which in process of time was abandoned in favor of another. But, whatever the laudator es terriporis acti may say, it must be evident to every impartial person, that our ancestors had great reason to be dissatisfied with their political situation, even in the article of taxation ; and perhaps the present cBra is, in that as well as in many other respects, as desirable a period to live in as any that can be pointed out in the history of this countr}'^ ; our ad- ditional weight of taxes being fully compensated by a more extended commerce, by improvements in every branch of sci- ence and of art, and by great accessions to our wealth, our se- curity, and our freedom. Though complaints have sometimes been made of the increase of the civil list, yet, if we consider the sums that have been formerly granted, the limited extent under which it is now established, the revenues and preroga- tives given up in lieu of it by the Crown (6), the numerous branches of the present royal family, and (above all) the dimi- nution of the value of money compared with what it was worth in the last century, we must acknowledge these complaints to be void of any rational foundation, and that it is impossible to support that dignity which a King of Great Britain should maintain, with an income in any degree less than what is now established by Parliament. It is observable, that a portion of the revenue is exclusively devoted to the support of the King, and his personal establish- ment and dignity ; the rest is appropriated to the public ser- vice. The civil list is indeed properly the whole of the King's revenue in his own distinct capacity ; the rest being rather the revenue of the public, or its creditors, though collected and distributed again, in the name and by the officers of the Crown, it now standing in the same place as the hereditary income did formerly ; and, as that has gradually diminished, the par- (t) 1 Vcs. 57. (A) 1 Bla. Com. 333. liamentary