might taint the blood royal with bastardy. In this respect the laws have more regard to her safety than to that of her younger sisters, over whom no such protection is extended. It is supposed by some, however, that the statute was not intended to apply even to the princess royal while she had brothers living, for the issue of their wives must inherit the crown before the issue of the princess royal, yet the chastity of the former is not protected by the statute in a similar manner, although it is a matter of equal importance. ALLOWANCES TO THE ROYAL FAMILY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE RESPECTIVE GRANTS. ADELAIDE THE QUEEN DOWager. Granted for life in the event of surviving ALBERT, PRINCE Granted for life by act 3rd Victoria, cap. 3. Share of a grant of £60,000 per per annum. £100,000 30,000 Grant for life by the acts 46th and 47th George III........... 6000 Grant for life, with remainder after death to the Duchess of Cambridge by act 1st Geo. IV.... 6000 CUMBERLAND, DUKE OF (King of Hanover.) Grant for life by act 46th and GLOUCESTER, DUCHESS OF Share of a grant of £36,000 per George III., with benefit of survivorship but limited to 15,000 6000 £12,000 per annum, each .... 11,958 Geo. III. cap. 57; and act 1st GLOUCESTER, PRINCESS SOPHIA OF Grant for life under act 46th and per annum. 27,000 21,000 4000 15,958 1 A considerable portion of this annuity is repaid to the Consolidated Fund; in 1835 £46,500 ; in 1838, £35,000 ; and a similar sum in 1839 and 1840. THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. "For like a prince he bore the vast expense Large was his train, and gorgeous his array.” POPE. It has been said, that "a great household is a little kingdom," and the greatest household in the country fully maintains this character, whether we regard the graduated scale of subordination which exists there, or the vast number of individuals filling an equal variety of offices. But the government of a great kingdom, and the performance of great functions, require the assistance of great numbers. The household is almost a body corporate, having its own magistrates, courts, and by-laws; but many of its functionaries owe their origin to a state of society far different from the present. In former days, when the household was even more numerous, and the supply of food but scanty and precarious, the royal purveyors would sally forth and seize necessaries in whatever condition they could obtain them; and the natural result of this was the proper preparation of all provisions within the royal palaces; hence arose many officers whose names only now exist as memorials of their functions, but whose duties have undergone the modifications which lapse of time and the progress of society have irresistibly effected. Formerly inferior offices in the household, however mean their duties, or however low their station elsewhere, were dignified by the loyalty of the subject, for "entire affection scorneth nicer hands," and a turnspit in the king's kitchen was a member of parliament. It is needless to say, however, that in the present day the dignity of the offices filled by distinguished nobles bears a nearer proportion to the rank and wealth of the individuals upon whom they are conferred. The proper protection of the sovereign from insult, by the performance of his duties through subordinates; the secure maintenance of the "divinity that doth hedge a king" by surrounding him with the nobles of the land as officers; and the formation of an appropriate society for the monarch, by giving men of honour and distinction a definite station round the throne, are among the purposes which are effected by the present condition of the royal household. There is also another security derived from the wealth and station of the members of the court, which is perhaps one of the strongest arguments in favour of its present constitution, viz. that they are removed from all the temptations, and liable to few of the charges to which a dependent condition might render them obnoxious; and thus their position at court, and their share of royal favour, is relieved from the influence of calumny, and preserved from the action of reproach. The offices included under the head of the Royal Household are very numerous, and some of them will require a separate notice. KEEPER OF THE PRIVY PURSE.-The personal expenses of the sovereign (exclusive of all household or official charges) are defrayed from the privy purse. These consist almost wholly of donations to distressed individuals, and grants to charitable institutions, a species of royal patronage which has done much to give England an enviable superiority over other nations in the number and efficiency of her public charities. Until the reign of George III. the privy purse cannot be said to have existed at all, and it was not considered as a fixed income and a part of the private property of the sovereign, until the mental aberration of George III. rendered it necessary to place its control in the hands of commissioners. It then amounted to £60,000 per annum. LORD STEWARD OF THE HOUSEHOLD.-This officer (who must not be confounded with the Lord High Steward of England) has the supreme direction of the royal household. He is always a member of the |