the country, and darkens our prospect for the future (»). The more immediate alarm, indeed, which it is calculated to excite, is perhaps for the safety of the public creditor. For it is obvious, that the capital invested in the funds exists, (like any other debt,) in name and in paper only; and that its value depends entirely upon the degree of reliance that can be placed in the good faith and resources of the government. But if the confidence of the fundholder should in either of these points be deceived, (a danger that manifestly increases as the debt increases,) the ruin in which so large a class of the community would inevitably be involved, and the irreparable shock to public credit, might have general and national results of a nature too painful to be steadily contemplated.

[To return to the subject of the taxes: it is to be observed, that the respective produces of customs, excise, stamps, and several other taxes, were originally separate and distinct funds; being securities for the sums advanced on each several tax, and for them only. But at last it became necessary, in order to avoid confusion, to reduce the number of these separate funds by uniting and blending them together. There were formerly three capital funds in existence, which had been thus produced by the aggregation of several component parts: the aggregate fund, the general fund, (so called from such union and addition,) and the South Sea fund,-the last being the produce of the taxes appropriated to pay the interest of such part of the national debt as was advanced by the South Sea Company and its annuitants.] But in the year 1787 the public accounts were again newly arranged, by abolishing these divisions and including the whole in one, called the con

(n) At the period when Blackstone wrote, the capital of the national debt, funded and unfunded, was only 136,000,000l. Yet he says (vol. i. p. 328), "The enormous

"taxes that are raised upon the "necessaries of life, for the payment "of the interest of this debt, are a "hurt both to trade and manufac"tures, &c."

solidated fund (0); which has been since combined with that of Ireland, and forms with it the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom (p).

The consolidated fund-comprising the produce of all the taxes which have been enumerated in this chapter, together with some small receipts from the royal hereditary revenue (surrendered, as before explained, to the public use), and from other sources (2),-constitutes almost the whole of the ordinary public revenue of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and the net receipts of income paid into the exchequer in the year ending 31st March, 1878 (after deducting repayments, &c.), amounted to 80,145,2867. 78. Od. (r). The consolidated fund is pledged for the payment of the whole of the interest of the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland (s); and, besides this, is liable to several other specific charges imposed upon it at various periods by act of parliament, -such as the civil list and the salaries of the judges and ambassadors and some other official persons (t); after payment of which, the surplus is to be indiscriminately applied to the service of the united kingdom under the direction of parliament (u). Of the civil list it will be proper here to give some further explanation.

(0) See 27 Geo. 3, c. 13.

(p) See 56 Geo. 3, c. 98; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 59.

(9) See, for example, 31 & 32 Vict. c. 9, as to casual receipts by persons holding public offices.

() Finance accounts for the year ending 31st March, 1878, p. 14.

(s) 56 Geo. 3, c. 98. See also 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 116; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 108.

(t) See 19 & 20 Vict. c. 108, s. 80, as to the salaries of the judges of county courts, being charged upon the consolidated fund.

(u) See for example 35 & 36 Vict. c. 1. By 17 & 18 Vict. c. 94, in order

to bring the national income and expenditure under the more immediate view and control of parliament, certain payments and salaries formerly charged on the consolidated fund, were directed, for the future, to be paid out of supplies from time to time provided and appropriated by parliament for the purpose. Of such an Appropriation Act, the 42 & 43 Vict. c. 51, is an example.

It may be here noticed that, out of the consolidated fund, advances of money for public works and fisheries for employment of the poor, and for other purposes, are from time to time authorized by

This is an annual sum granted by parliament at the commencement of each reign, for the expense of the royal household and establishment, as distinguished from the general exigencies of the State; and is the provision before stated to be made for the crown, out of the taxes, in lieu of its proper patrimony, and in consideration of the assignment of that patrimony to the public use. This arrangement has prevailed from the time of the Revolution downwards, though the amount fixed for the civil list has been subject in different reigns to considerable variation. At the commencement of the present reign a civil list was settled on her majesty for life to the amount of 385,0007. per annum, payable quarterly, out of the consolidated fund; of which the sum of 60,0007. is assigned for her majesty's privy purse, and the remainder is applicable chiefly to the salaries and expenses connected with her household (x). In return for which grant it was at the same time provided, that the hereditary revenues of the Crown (with the exception of the duties of excise on beer, ale, and cider, which were to be discontinued during the present reign) should, during the present queen's life, be carried to, and form part of the consolidated fund (y). The civil list (as will sufficiently appear from these explanations) is therefore granted by the public in exchange for the whole of that part of the consolidated fund, which is the produce of the revenue of the sovereign in his own distinct capacity; the remainder of that fund being rather

Act of Parliament. Of such an Act, in reference to advances for Public Works, the 42 & 43 Vict. c. 77, is an example. It may be further observed that by the 56 Geo. 3, c. 98 (above cited), the consolidated fund is also primarily charged with the payment of the interest on the sinking funds applicable to the reduction of the national debt. At different periods of our financial history, different principles have been pursued as to

the manner in which such a fund should be formed. (See 32 Geo. 3, c. 69; 10 Geo. 4, c. 27; 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 24; 29 & 30 Vict. c. 11; 38 & 39 Vict. c. 45.)

(x) The Act for this purpose is 1 & 2 Vict. c. 2. See the Finance accounts for the year ending 31st March, 1878, p. 42.

(y) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 2. As to the revenue derived from wreck, vide sup. p. 542.

the revenue of the public or its creditors, though collected and distributed again in the name and by the officers of the Crown (s). The civil list, therefore, now stands in the same place as the hereditary income did formerly; but with this great difference, that it is not chargeable, as the hereditary income was, with the general and public expenses of government (a). [The whole revenue of Queen Elizabeth amounted to 600,0001. a year (b); that of King Charles the first was 800,0007. (c); and the revenue voted for King Charles the second was 1,200,000l. (d) ; though complaints were made (in the first years at least) that it did not amount to so much (e). But it must be observed, that under these sums were included all manner of public expenses; among which Lord Clarendon in his speech to the parliament computed, that the charge of the navy and land forces amounted annually to 800,0007., which was ten times more than before the former troubles (f). The same revenue, subject to the same charges, was settled on King James the second (g); but, by the increase of trade and more frugal management, it amounted on an average to a million and a half per annum-besides other additional customs granted by parliament, which produced an annual revenue of 400,000%. (h), -out of which his fleet and army were maintained at the yearly expense of 1,100,0007. (i).

Upon the whole, it is doubtless much better for the Crown, and also for the people, to have the revenue settled upon the modern footing rather than the antient : for the Crown, because it is more certain, and collected with greater ease; for the people, because they are now delivered from the feudal hardships, and other odious

[branches of the prerogative. And 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 prerogatives given up in lieu of it by the Crown, and, above all, the diminution of the value of money, compared with what it was worth in former reigns, we must acknowledge these complaints to be void of any rational foundation: and that it is impossible to support that dignity, which a sovereign of this country should maintain, with an income in any degree less than what is now established by parliament.]