millions and three quarters, intereſt of the national debt, and the two millions and a quarter produced from the ſinking fund, make up the ſeven millions and three quarters per annum, neat money, which were before ſtated to be the annual produce of our perpetual taxes; beſides the immenſe, though uncertain, ſums ariſing from the annual taxes on land and malt, but which, at an average, may be calculated at more than two millions and a quarter; and, added to the preceding ſum, make the clear produce of the taxes, excluſive of the charge of collecting, which are raiſed yearly on the people of this country, amount to upwards of ten millions ſterling.
The expenſes defrayed by the civil liſt are thoſe that in any ſhape relate to civil government; as, the expenſes of the houſhold; all ſalaries to officers of ſtate, to the judges, and every of the king's ſervants; the appointments to foreign embaſſadors; the maintenance of the queen and royal family; the king's private expenſes, or privy purſe; and other very numerous outgoings, as ſecret ſervice money, penſions, and other bounties: which ſometimes have ſo far exceeded the revenues appointed for that purpoſe, that application has been made to parliament to diſcharge the debts contracted on the civil liſt; as particularly in 1724, when one million was granted for that purpoſe by the ſtatute 11 Geo. I. c. 17.
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 it's 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 parliamentary appointments have encreaſed. The whole revenue of queen Elizabeth did not amount to more than 600000đ. a year[1]: that of king Charles I was[2] 800000đ. and the revenue voted for king Charles II was[3] 1200000đ. though complaints were made
