Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/608

 emperor a field-marshal and Prince Henry a vice-admiral of the fleet. By way of marking his chivalric resolve to associate his wife with all the honour of his new status, he devised at the same time a new distinction in her behalf, appointing her Lady of the Garter (12 Feb. 1901).

His first public function as sovereign was to open in state the new session of parliament on 14 Feb. 1901. This royal duty, which the queen had only performed seven times in the concluding forty years of her reign and for the last time in 1885, chiefly brought the sovereign into public relation with the government of the country. The king during his nine years of rule never omitted the annual ceremony, and he read for himself the speech from the throne. That practice had been dropped by the queen in 1861, and had not been resumed by her.

Queen Victoria had been created Empress of India in 1876, and King Edward was the first British sovereign to succeed to the dignity of Emperor of India. By Act of Parliament (1 Edw. VII, cap. 15) another addition was now made to the royal titles with a view to associating the crown for the first time directly with the colonial empire. He was declared by statute to be King not only of Great Britain and Ireland but of 'the British dominions beyond the seas.' On the new coinage he was styled 'Britt. Omn. Rex,' in addition to the old designations.

Queen Victoria left the new king her private residences of Osborne and Balmoral, but her pecuniary fortune was distributed among the younger members of her family. The king was stated on his accession to have no debts and no capital. Gossip which erroneously credited him with an immense indebtedness ignored his business instincts and the good financial advice which he invariably had at his disposal in the inner circle of his friends. Like Queen Victoria he relinquished on his accession the chief hereditary revenues of the crown, which had grown in value during her reign from 245,000l. to 425,000l. As in 1837, the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall were held, despite radical misgivings, to stand on another footing and to be royal appanages in the personal control of the royal family. The duchy of Lancaster, which produced 60,000l. a year, was reckoned to be the sovereign's private property, and the duchy of Cornwall, which was of like value, that of the heir- apparent. On his ceasing to be Prince of Wales the parliamentary grant to him of 40,000l. lapsed, while the duchy of Cornwall passed to his son. The king's income, in the absence of a new parliamentary grant, was thus solely the 60,000l. from the duchy of Lancaster. The Act of 1889, which provided 36,000l. a year for his children, became void six months after late sovereign's death.

On 5 March a royal message invited the House of Commons to make pecuniary provision for the king and his family. A select committee of twenty-one was appointed on 11 March 1901 to consider the king's financial position. The Irish nationalists declined to serve, but Henry Labouchere represented the radical and labour sections, to whom the cost of the monarchy was a standing grievance. The committee was chiefly constituted of the leaders of the two chief parties in the state. It was finally decided to recommend an annual grant of 470,000l., a sum which was 85,000l. in excess of the income allowed to the late queen. The increase was justified on the ground that a larger sum would be needed for the hospitalities of the court. No special grant was made to Queen Alexandra, but it was understood that 33,000l. would be paid her out of that portion (110,000l.) of the total grant allotted to the privy purse; 70,000l. was secured to her in case of widowhood. The king's son and heir, George, duke of York, who now became duke of Cornwall and York, received an annuity of 20,000l., and his wife, the duchess, received one of 10,000l., with an additional 20,000l. in case of widowhood; the three daughters of the king were given a joint annual income of 18,000l. Some other expenses, like the repair of the royal palaces (18,000l.) and the maintenance of royal yachts (23,000l.), were provided for independently from the Consolidated Fund. The resolutions to these effects were adopted by 250 to 62. They were resisted by the Irish nationalists and by a few advanced radicals, including Henry Labouchere, Mr. Keir Hardie, and Mr. John Burns. Mr. Burns warmly deprecated a royal income which should be comparable with the annual revenues of [q. v. Suppl. I], [q. v. Suppl. II], or Mr. Andrew Carnegie. The civil list bill which embodied the resolutions was finally read a third time on 11 June 1901 by 370 against 60, and it became law on 2 July (1 Edw. VII, cap. 4). The generous terms were accepted by the nation with an enthusiasm which proved the sureness of the crown's