s to him in the country's affairs,"
that it might be well to adhere closely to the late Queen's Civil List,
and that the example of "a moderate and sober Court" would be of the
highest value to the nation. On March 11th Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach moved
the appointment of a House of Commons' Committee to deal with the
question, composed of Mr. Balfour, Sir W. Hart Dyke, Sir F.
Dixon-Hartland, Sir S. Hoare, Mr. W. L. Jackson, with seven other
members and himself, as representatives of the Government party and Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Sir William Harcourt, Sir Henry Fowler, Sir
James Kitson, Mr. H. Labouchere, and three others, as representing the
Opposition. The _Times_ of the following day said that there were two
reasons for somewhat increasing the sum to be voted--the fact of the
King having a Consort of whom the nation was proud, while Queen Victoria
was unmarried at the time of the former vote, and the fact, as the
Chancellor of the Exchequer put it to the House, that the King was now
the head of a world-wide Empire.

As finally decided in the Report of the Select Committee the new Civil
List was placed at L470,000 for the Sovereign--of which L110,000 was to
go to the Privy Purse in place of L60,000 received by Queen Victoria;
the Duke of Cornwall and York was to receive L20,000 annually, and the
Duchess L10,000--in addition, of course, to the L60,000 coming to the
Heir Apparent from the Duchy of Lancaster; the King's children, the
Duchess of Fife, Princess Victoria and Princess Charles of Denmark, were
each to have L6,000 a year for life; while the contingent annuity of
L30,000 provided in the event of Queen Alexandra surviving her husband,
was to be increased to L70,000 and a similar contingent grant of L30,000
arranged for the Duchess of Cornwall and York. The only apparent
opposition in the Committee to these proposals was from Mr. Labouchere,
who suggested certain variations and reductions. There was little
influential criticism of the changes proposed--the _Daily News_, from
which opposition might, perhaps have come, speaking of one special
increase of L50,000, as follows: "The Queen must have a separate
Household if the Monarchy is to be maintained, as most people wish that
it should be maintained, in its ancient splendour; and the gracious
kindness of Queen Alexandra, who has endeared herself to all the
subjects of her husband, will make the tax-payer in her case a cheerful
giver."

On May 9th Resolutions b