THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 15, 1937.
The Civil List
(BY A BARRİSTER)
The main business which the House of Commons. will have
Ursula Bloom brings
case against the law
her
And They Call It Justice!
She can still be put
I write this from my heart, that name can-catapult into court, carried out. before it on Wednesday will be to Not only would I say that Bri- swear it has injured him, claim by a Court to that torture, for which there is no excuse whatso- make financial provisional for the tish justice is unjust, but I would damages he gets.
A friend of mine. had a service ever, King by means of what is called the put a strong adjective before it.
Dickens said, "The law is a ħass.” flat."
She can still hear the fatal words, "Civil List
She broke the table in the lift by not realising that they are mere The way in which the Civil List And it still needs reshuffling. It came into existence is rather inter- still needs a more modern angle accident and had to pay for it. frothings-
Hot marmalade sauce was liber But if they mean nothing at all— esting; and it shows, incidentally, It still needs younger judges and the sort of method by which the magistrates much more in touch ally spilt on her old mahogany why say them? Why inflict such old absolute monarchy was gradual with life as it is really lived to-day dressing table, reflecting years of an ordeal on our fellow creature?
The law is at liberty to arrest mè arduous polishing,
The law looks to me very much ly changed into 2 constitutional
for murder to-morrow should un- That was an accident, too, but like a villain as well as an ass. monarchy.
fortunate circumstances lead them nobody had to pay for it. In Norman times, after 1066, the to believe that I was guilty. King used to run the country, al- They would employ an argumen- Have you never found this with the street where they close at half- most, as it were, out of his private tative and brilliant gentleman to the law? You bet you have. past ten, get turned out, and cross pocket. He held a great deal of prove my guilt; I should have to If your "neighbour's dog comes the road to continue imbibing until land out of which he derived a
use probably every farthing I pos- into your garden and scratches up large income, and he was also en sess to prove to twelve good men your best bulbs, you complain to titled to fendal dues and to various and true, by the means of another your neighbour. You cease being other payments from time to time argumentative and brilliant gentle- friendly and the dog continues to which can only be described by the man, that I was innocent.
root up your bulbs. rather undignified name of 'perks. If I were acquitted, should I get
Not on your life.
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In London, can drink one side of
eleven
What a pack of nonsense!
If you faint outside a wine shop flowing with brandy, and it is the wrong hour, can you get a tea- spoonful?
If you throw stones at it, what There was no such thing as taxa-
my money back?
happens? You get run in.
Heavens, no! You must wait to tion then, and no distinction be-
The attitude of the law is "What fait till the law permits them to tween the King's public revenue I should have no possible handle is yours is mine, and what is mine give you drink. If you die, that is and his private revenue. If he against the law. I should merely is my own." All I can feel about it your pidgin. The law must be up bought a new suit or waged a war, be assured that I was lucky to get is that it is a fat lot of use to no- held; but what a law! they were paid for out of the same away with my life. purse. Sometimes in the fourteen- The law can run you in, buf hundred's Parliament was strong Heaven help you if you try to run enough to make the King give an the law in instead! account of what he was doing with his.money, but this was very rare. Stuart Period
.
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body.
All institutions are upheld what- The divorce laws are a crying soever they do. disgrace.
Have you ever heard of a hospital The law demands sin. The law, losing its day even though it has which pretends to be there to pre been quite obviously in the wrong? on vent wickedness," must have full Not on your life!
proof of positivé vice before it can be satisfied. Nothing else will do.
We want a new set of laws, and You can have your husband ser- younger men to advance them. ving a life sentence for murder,
To-day we know that a great deal your wife-can be drivelling in of crime is due to a medical state, lunatic asylum with no chance of and connected with the ever coming out, but you remain That knowledge should be properly chained fast.
employed and expounded
But then, the law is never one's side.
I write a book. In it I may use name which I have invented. Someone unfortunately owning
It was not until the sixteen-hun- a dred's, in Stuart times, that any:- real system of taxation began. The King used to ask Parliament to im pose a certain tax and let him have
£800,000. Since then every so the proceeds. Sometimes he asked for it for a particular purpose, but Vereign who has succeeded to the throne has made the same surren- more often he spent it just as he liked. If Parliament would not der in exchange for a fixed annual give them the money they wanted, payment. It is interesting, by the the Stuart Kings resorted to all way, to note that in 1760 the Crown sorts of doubtful practices, such as forced loans, selling privileges, and demanding so-called gifts.
lands brought in a net income of $11,000, whereas last year the in- come from them which was paid in- to the Exchequer was £1,360,000...
The great change came with the
After that, all that was left was Revolution of 1688, when the last
to take out of the Civil List those of the Stuarts was deprived of his
items which belonged to the ex- throne, and the beginnings of con- stitutional monarchy were estab pense of governing the country rather than to the King's personal lished. Thereafter Parliament never voted money for the King expenditure. They were still very without requiring that it should be mixed up in the Civil List. used for a particular purpose.
The
For
example, in 1780, when George III- Fear 1698, when William of got into debt and went to Parlia Orange was on the throne, saw the ment about it, Parliament drew up the various items of his budget; first mention of the Civil List. An
you can find Item Number Three Act of Parliament of that year pro for salaries for ambassadors side vided that the proceeds of certain taxes should be added to the income by side with Item Number Four for
tradesmen's bills.
from the Crown Lands and the
King's hereditary dues and revenues Duchy Of to make up a sum of seven hundred
thousand pounds a year to be Lancaster
known as the Civil List. But the
Civil List when it began was very
George IV was the first King to
much wider than it is now; indeed, have a sum of £60,000 specifically it gets its name from the fact that allotted to him out of the Civil List it then included all the salaries of for his personal expenditure. Now- the civil service.
First Restrictions
adays, and for the last hundred years, the Civil List has consisted of, very roughly, about £400,000 a year, nearly three-quarters of The next step was to draw a dis- which is appropriated by Parlia tinction between the lands held by ment for other members of the the King in his public capacity, and Royal family besides the King and those held by him in his private the salaries of the King's house- capacity. This was done in Queen hold, and so on, while the balan Anne's reign, when restrictions is for the King's personal expendi were placed on the sovereign
He still refains “in his own power of dealing with her public right the revenues from the lands
the Duchy of
But the really big step 1760, when George III, ession to the throne,
from 218 the
therlands, he
а
You cannot get a divorce unless
sin must be proved absolutely. you are prepared to sin, and that
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A pretty set of laws those!
The law should be fair for every- body, and not for just a parti
of notice that,
few. I notice I am never these. Probably you too, about yourself.
Can't
The girl arrested for infanticide -can still be condemned to death, it?
though the sentence will never be
IF
Calling
And if not why not
Calling
Scots
done about
TH
FAMOUS SINCE
1801.
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