e simplest way
the reason why the arrangement had been delayed; how his Majesty had
voluntarily taken it on himself that the prince should have fifty
thousand a year absolutely independent of the Sovereign's future action,
and over and above the revenues arising from the duchy of Cornwall, which
his Majesty {87} thinks a very competent allowance, considering his own
numerous issue and the great expenses which do, and which necessarily
must, attend an honorable provision for his whole royal family. And then
the record gave the answer of the Prince of Wales and its peculiar
conclusion; "Indeed, my lords, it is in other hands--I am sorry for it;"
"or," as the record of the peers cautiously concluded, "to that effect."

The reading of this document had one effect, which was instantly invoked
for it by Walpole. It brought the whole controversy down to the question
whether the prince's father or the prince's friends ought to be the
better authority as to the amount which the King could afford to give,
and the amount which the prince ought to be encouraged to demand. It
shrunk, in fact, into a mean discussion about the cost of provisions and
the amounts of the land-tax; the number of children George the Second had
to maintain as compared with the small family George the First had to
provide for; the fact that George the Second had a wife to maintain in
becoming state in England, whereas George the First had saved himself
from the occasion of any such outlay; the total amount left for George
the Second to spend as compared with the total amount which the differing
conditions left at the disposal of his illustrious father. Let us see
what the income of the Prince of Wales was computed to be by his friends
at that time. He had fifty thousand a year allowance. From that, said
his friends, we must deduct the land-tax, which at two shillings in the
pound amounts to 5000 pounds a year. This brings the allowance down to
45,000 pounds. Then comes the sixpenny duty to the Civil List lottery,
which has also to be deducted from the poor prince's dwindling pittance,
and likewise the fees payable at the Exchequer; and the sixpenny duty
amounts to 1250 pounds, and the fees to about 750 pounds, so that
altogether 7000 pounds would have to be taken off, leaving the prince
only 43,000 pounds allowance. Then, to be sure, there was the duchy of
Cornwall, the revenues of which, it was insisted, {88} did not amount to
more than 9000 pounds