ed that nothing whatever should
be brought before Parliament, in connexion with the Civil List, that was
a casual expense, or for which a regular vote could not be submitted.

The original system, I have already stated, had been departed from in
the reign of George III., and the late Government in presenting their
civil list made a still further departure from it, and upon this
principle;--wherever a part of a salary was to be paid out of the civil
list, and part out of the consolidated fund, it was resolved to pay all
out of the consolidated fund. The course was adopted with regard to the
salaries of the Judges, the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker of the
House of Commons, and also of various other offices, some of which have
been since abolished. This was thought a less objectionable mode than
that of subjecting those salaries to an annual discussion in the
Committee of the House of Commons. We wished my Lords to place those
salaries upon the consolidated fund, in order to prevent the possibility
of the country being left without a proper and efficient administration
of public affairs. We did not wish to leave the Government to the chance
of being impeded by a small majority, in the House of Commons, which,
according to other proposed plans, might diminish the salaries of public
officers at pleasure. If my Lord we look to the period of the Revolution
we shall find that there were long discussions respecting the right of
the crown to its hereditary revenues, which ended in a concession of the
principle that these revenues did belong to the crown. At that time
nobody ever dreamed of separating the expenses of the crown from those
of the civil government, and of making a separate provision for the
support of the state and dignity of the crown, which should be subject
to the controul of parliament. The plan of separation, my Lords, is one
of modern invention altogether, and I totally dissent from it. Because,
let us look to the situation in which the crown is placed under the
operation of such a system, and we must observe that it will place the
crown in a situation such as it ought not to be reduced to; namely that
it will render it liable to be deprived of the assistance--say of a
public officer, whose salary may be lost by a single vote in a committee
of supply.

_April, 19th, 1831._

* * * * *

_The Expenses of Ministers ruinous, unless they have large Private
fortunes._

With resp