annual income a person receives from the rent of his lands, houses, interest of money in the stocks, &c.

Royal Revenue, that which the British constitution hath vested in the royal person, in order to support his dignity and maintain his power; being a portion which each subject contributes of his property, in order to secure the remainder. This revenue is either ordinary or extraordinary.

I. The king's ordinary revenue is such as has either subsisted time out of mind in the crown; or else has been granted by parliament, by way of purchase or exchange for such of the king's inherent hereditary revenues as were found inconvenient to the subject.—In saying that it has subsisted time out of mind in the crown, we do not mean that the king is at present in the actual possession of the whole of his revenue. Much (nay the greatest Revenue greatest part) of it is at this day in the hands of subjects; to whom it has been granted out from time to time by the kings of England: which has rendered the crown in some measure dependent on the people for its ordinary support and subsistence. So that we must be obliged to recount, as part of the royal revenue, what lords of manors and other subjects frequently look upon to be their own absolute rights; because they and their ancestors are and have been veiled in them for ages, though in reality originally derived from the grants of our ancient princes.

1. The first of the king's ordinary revenues, which may be taken notice of, is of an ecclesiastical kind (as are also the three succeeding ones), viz. the custody of the temporalities of bishops. See Temporalities.

2. The king is entitled to a corody, as the law calls it, out of every bishopric; that is, to send one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a pension allowed him till the bishop promotes him to a benefice. This is also in the nature of an acknowledgment to the king, as founder of the see; since he had formerly the same corody or pension from every abbey or priory of royal foundation. It is supposed to be now fallen into total dilute; though Sir Matthew Hale says, that it is due of common right, and that no prescription will discharge it.

3. The king also is entitled to all the tithes arising in extraparochial places: though perhaps it may be doubted how far this article, as well as the last, can be properly reckoned a part of the king's own royal revenue; since a corody supports only his chaplains, and these extraparochial tithes are held under an implied trust that the king will distribute them for the good of the clergy in general.

4. The next branch consists in the first-fruits and tenths of all spiritual preferments in the kingdom. See Tenths.

5. The next branch of the king's ordinary revenue (which, as well as the subsequent branches, is of a lay or temporal nature) consists in the rents and profits of the demesne lands of the crown. These demesne lands, terrae dominicales regis, being either the share reserved to the crown at the original distribution of landed property, or such as came to it afterwards by forfeitures or other means, were anciently very large and extensive; comprising divers manors, honours, and lordships; the tenants of which had very peculiar privileges, when we speak of the tenure in ancient demesne. At present they are contracted within a very narrow compass, having been almost entirely granted away to private subjects. This has occasioned the parliament frequently to interpose; and particularly after King William III. had greatly impoverished the crown, an act passed, whereby all future grants or leases from the crown for any longer term than 31 years or three lives, are declared to be void; except with regard to houses, which may be granted for 50 years. And no reverendary lease can be made, so as to exceed, together with the estate in being, the same term of three lives or 31 years; that is, when there is a subsisting lease, of which there are 20 years still to come the king cannot grant a future interest, to commence after the expiration of the former, for any longer term than 11 years. The tenant must also be made liable to be punished for committing waste; and the usual rent must be reserved, or, where there has usually been no rent, one-third of the clear yearly value. The misfortune is, that this act was made too late, after almost every valuable possession of the crown had been granted away for ever, or else upon very long leases; but may be of benefit to posterity, when those leases come to expire.

6. Hither might have been referred the advantages which were used to arise to the king from the profits of his military tenures, to which most lands in the kingdom were subject, till the statute 12 Car. II. c. 24, which in great measure abolished them all. Hither also might have been referred the profitable prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption: which was a right enjoyed by the crown of buying up provisions and other necessaries, by the intervention of the king's purveyors, for the use of his royal household, at an appraised valuation, in preference to all others, and even without consent of the owner: and also of forcibly impressing the carriages and horses of the subject, to do the king's business on the public roads, in the conveyance of timber, baggage, and the like, however inconvenient to the proprietor, upon paying him a settled price. A prerogative which prevailed pretty generally throughout Europe during the scarcity of gold and silver, and the high valuation of money consequential thereupon. In those early times, the king's household (as well as those of inferior lords) were supported by specific renders of corn, and other victuals, from the tenants of the respective demesnes; and there was also a continual market kept at the palace-gate to furnish viands for the royal use. And this answered all purposes, in those ages of simplicity, so long as the king's court continued in any certain place. But when it removed from one part of the kingdom to another (as was formerly very frequently done), it was found necessary to send purveyors beforehand, to get together a sufficient quantity of provisions and other necessaries for the household; and, left the unusual demand should raise them to an exorbitant price, the powers before-mentioned were vested in these purveyors; who in process of time very greatly abused their authority, and became a great oppression to the subject, though of little advantage to the crown; ready money in open market (when the royal residence was more permanent, and specie began to be plenty) being found upon experience to be the best provident of any. Wherefore, by degrees, the powers of purveyance have declined, in foreign countries as well as our own: and particularly were abolished in Sweden by Gustavus Adolphus, towards the beginning of the last century. And, with us in England, having fallen into dilute during the suspension of monarchy, King Charles, at his restoration, contented, by the same statute, to resign entirely those branches of his revenue and power: and the parliament, in part of recompense, settled on him, his heirs, and successors, for ever, the hereditary excise of 15d. per barrel on all beer and ale sold in the kingdom, and a proportionable sum for certain other liquors. So that this hereditary excise now forms the fifth branch of his majesty's ordinary revenue.

7. A seventh branch might also be computed to have arisen from wine-licences; or the rents payable to the crown by such persons as are licensed to sell wine by retail throughout Britain, except in a few privileged places. These were first settled on the crown by the statute 12 Car. II. c. 25, and, together with the hereditary Revenue.

ditary excise, made up the equivalent in value for the losses sustained by the prerogative in the abolition of the military tenures, and the right of pre-emption and purveyance; but this revenue was abolished by the statute 30 Geo. II. c. 19, and an annual sum of upwards of £5000 per annum, issuing out of the new stamp duties imposed on wine-licences, was settled on the crown in its stead.

8. An eighth branch of the king's ordinary revenue is usually reckoned to consist in the profits arising from his forests. See FOREST. These consist principally in the amercements or fines levied for offences against the forest laws. But as few, if any, courts of this kind for levying amercements have been held since 1632, 8 Char. I., and as, from the accounts given of the proceedings in that court by our historians and law-books, nobody would wish to see them again revived, it is needless to pursue this inquiry any farther.

9. The profits arising from the king's ordinary courts of justice make a ninth branch of his revenue. And these consist not only in fines imposed upon offenders, forfeitures of recognizances, and amercements levied upon defaulters; but also in certain fees due to the crown in a variety of legal matters, as, for setting the great seal to charters, original writs, and other forensic proceedings, and for permitting fines to be levied of lands in order to bar entails, or otherwise to insure their title. As none of these can be done without the immediate intervention of the king, by himself or his officers, the law allows him certain perquisites and profits, as a recompense for the trouble he undertakes for the public. These, in process of time, have been almost all granted out to private persons, or else appropriated to certain particular uses: so that, though our law proceedings are still loaded with their payment, very little of them is now returned into the king's exchequer; for a part of whole royal maintenance they were originally intended. All future grants of them, however, by the statute 1 Ann. stat. 2. c. 7, are to endure for no longer time than the prince's life who grants them.

10. A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon; and these, when either thrown ashore, or caught near the coasts, are the property of the king, on account of their superior excellence. Indeed, our ancestors seem to have entertained a very high notion of the importance of this right; it being the prerogative of the kings of Denmark and the dukes of Normandy; and from one of these it was probably derived to our princes.

11. Another maritime revenue, and founded partly upon the same reason, is that of SHIPWRECKS. See WRECK.

12. A twelfth branch of the royal revenue, the right to mines, has its original from the king's prerogative of coinage, in order to supply him with materials; and therefore those mines which are properly royal, and to which the king is entitled when found, are only those of silver and gold. See MINE.

13. To the same original may in part be referred the reverse of treasure-trove. See TREASURE-TROVE.

14. Waifs. See WAIF.

15. Estrays. See ESTRAY.

Besides the particular reasons, given in the different Revenue articles, why the king should have the several revenues of royal fish, shipwrecks, treasure-trove, waifs, and estrays, there is also one general reason which holds for them all; and that is, because they are bona vacantia, or goods in which no one else can claim a property. And, therefore, by the law of nature, they belonged to the first occupant or finder; and so continued under the imperial law. But in settling the modern constitutions of most of the governments in Europe, it was thought proper (to prevent that strife and contention which the mere title of occupancy is apt to create and continue, and to provide for the support of public authority in a manner the least burdensome to individuals) that these rights should be annexed to the supreme power by the positive laws of the state. And so it came to pass, that as Bracton expresses it, "hac, qua nullius in bonis fuit, et olim fuerunt inventoris de jure naturali, jam efficiuntur principis de jure gentium."

16. The next branch of the king's ordinary revenue consists in forfeitures of lands and goods for offences; bona confiscata, as they are called by the civilians, because they belonged to the fiscus or imperial treasury; or, as our lawyers term them, foris facta, that is, such whereof the property is gone away or departed from the owner. The true reason and only substantial ground of any forfeiture for crimes, consist in this; that all property is derived from society, being one of those civil rights which are conferred upon individuals, in exchange for that degree of natural freedom which every man must sacrifice when he enters into social communities. If, therefore, a member of any national community violates the fundamental contract of his association, by transgressing the municipal law, he forfeits his right to such privileges as he claims by that contract; and the state may very justly refuse that portion of property, or any part of it, which the laws have before assigned him. Hence, in every offence of an atrocious kind, the laws of England have exacted a total confiscation of the moveables or personal estate; and, in many cases, a perpetual, in others only a temporary, loss of the offender's immoveables or landed property; and have vested them both in the king, who is the person supposed to be offended, being the one visible magistrate in whom the majesty of the public resides. See FORFEITURE and DEODAND.

17. Another branch of the king's ordinary revenue arises from escheats of lands, which happen upon the death of heirs to succeed to the inheritance; whereupon they in general revert to and vest in the king, who is escheated, in the eye of the law, the original proprietor of all lands in the kingdom.

18. The last branch of the king's ordinary revenue, consists in the custody of idiots, from whence we shall be naturally led to consider also the custody of lunatics. See IDIOT and LUNATIC.

This may suffice for a short view of the king's ordinary revenue, or the proper patrimony of the crown; which was very large formerly, and capable of being increased to a magnitude truly formidable: for there are very few estates in the kingdom that have not, at some period or other since the Norman conquest, been vested in the hands of the king, by forfeiture, escheat, or otherwise. But, fortunately for the liberty of the subject, this hereditary landed revenue, by a series of improvident improvident management, is sunk almost to nothing; and the casual profits, arising from the other branches of the census regalis, are likewise almost all of them alienated from the crown. In order to supply the deficiencies of which, we are now obliged to have recourse to new methods of raising money, unknown to our early ancestors; which methods constitute,

II. The king's extraordinary revenue. For, the public patrimony being got into the hands of private subjects, it is but reasonable that private contributions should supply the public service. Which, though it may perhaps fall harder upon some individuals, whose ancestors have had no share in the general plunder, than upon others, yet, taking the nation throughout, it amounts to nearly the same; provided the gain by the extraordinary should appear to be no greater than the loss by the ordinary revenue. And perhaps, if every gentleman in the kingdom was to be stripped of such of his lands as were formerly the property of the crown; was to be again subject to the inconveniences of purveyance and pre-emption, the opprobrium of forest-laws, and the slavery of feudal-tenures; and was to resign into the king's hands all his royal franchises of waifs, wrecks, estrays, treasure-trove, mines, deadlands, forfeitures, and the like; he would find himself a greater loser than by paying his quota to such taxes as are necessary to the support of government. The thing, therefore, to be wished and aimed at in a land of liberty, is by no means the total abolition of taxes, which would draw after it very pernicious consequences, and the very supposition of which is the height of political absurdity. For as the true idea of government and magistracy will be found to consist in this, that some few men are deputies by many others to preside over public affairs, so that individuals may the better be enabled to attend their private concerns; it is necessary that those individuals should be bound to contribute a portion of their private gains, in order to support that government, and reward that magistracy, which protects them in the enjoyment of their respective properties. But the things to be aimed at are wisdom and moderation, not only in granting, but also in the method of raising, the necessary supplies; by contriving to do both in such a manner as may be most conducive to the national welfare, and at the same time most consistent with economy and the liberty of the subject; who, when properly taxed, contributes only, as was before observed, some part of his property in order to enjoy the rest.

These extraordinary grants are usually called by the synonymous names of aids, subsidies, and supplies; and are granted by the commons of Great Britain, in parliament assembled. See Parliament and Tax.

The clear net produce of the several branches of the revenue, after all charges of collecting and management paid, amounted in the year 1786 to about £5,397,000 sterling, while the expenditure was found to be about £4,477,000. How these immense sums are appropriated, is next to be considered. And this is, first and principally, to the payment of the interest of the national debt. See National Debt and Funds.

The respective produces of the several taxes were originally separate and distinct funds; being securities for the sums advanced on each several tax, and for them only. But at last it became necessary, in order to avoid confusion, as they multiplied yearly, to reduce the number of these separate funds, by uniting and blending them together; superadding the faith of parliament for the general security of the whole. So that there are now only three capital funds of any account, the aggregate fund, and the general fund, so called from such union and addition; and the Southsea fund, being the produce of the taxes appropriated to pay the interest of such part of the national debt as was advanced by that company and its annuitants. Whereby the separate funds, which were thus united, are become mutual securities for each other; and the whole produce of them, thus aggregated, liable to pay such interest or annuities as were formerly charged upon each distinct fund: the faith of the legislature being moreover engaged to supply any casual deficiencies.

The customs, excises, and other taxes, which are to support these funds, depending on contingencies, upon exports, imports, and consumptions, must necessarily be of a very uncertain amount; but they have always been considerably more than was sufficient to answer the charge upon them. The surpluses, therefore, of the three great national funds, the aggregate, general, and Southsea funds, over and above the interest and annuities charged upon them, are directed by statute Geo. I. c. 7. to be carried together, and to attend the disposition of parliament; and are usually denominated the sinking fund, because originally destined to sink and lower the national debt. To this have been since added many other entire duties, granted in subsequent years; and the annual interest of the sums borrowed on their respective credits is charged on, and payable out of, the produce of the sinking fund. However, the nett surpluses and savings, after all deductions paid, amount annually to a very considerable sum. For as the interest on the national debt has been at several times reduced (by the consent of the proprietors, who had their option either to lower their interest or be paid their principal), the savings from the appropriated revenues must needs be extremely large.

But, before any part of the aggregate fund (the surpluses whereof are one of the chief ingredients that form the sinking fund) can be applied to diminish the principal of the public debt, it stands mortgaged by parliament to raise an annual sum for the maintenance of the king's household and the civil list. For this purpose, in the late reigns, the produce of certain branches of the excise and customs, the post-office, the duty on wine-licences, the revenues of the remaining crown-lands, the profits arising from courts of justice, (which articles include all the hereditary revenues of the crown), and also a clear annuity of £20,000l. in money, were settled on the king for life, for the support of his majesty's household, and the honour and dignity of the crown. And, as the amount of these several branches was uncertain, (though in the last reign they were computed to have sometimes raised almost a million), if they did not rise annually to £20,000l. the parliament engaged to make up the deficiency. But his present majesty having, soon after his accession, spontaneously signified his consent that his own hereditary revenues might be so disposed of as might best conduce to the utility and satisfaction of the public, and having graciously accepted a limited sum, the said hereditary and other revenues are now carried into, and made a part of, the aggregate fund; and the aggregate fund is charged with Revenue, the payment of the whole annuity to the crown. The limited annuity accepted by his present majesty was at first 800,000l. but it has been since augmented to 900,000l.

The expenses themselves, being put under the same care and management as the other branches of the public patrimony, produce more, and are better collected than heretofore; and the public is a gainer of upwards of 100,000l. per annum by this disinterested bounty of his majesty.

The sinking fund, though long talked of as the last resource of the nation, proved very inadequate to the purpose for which it was established. Ministers found pretences for diverting it into other channels; and the diminution of the national debt proceeded slowly during the intervals of peace, whilst each succeeding war increased it with great rapidity. To remedy this evil, and restore the public credit, to which the late war had given a considerable shock, Mr Pitt conceived a plan for diminishing the debt by a fund, which should be rendered unalienable to any other purpose. In the session 1786, he moved that the annual surplus of the revenue above the expenditure should be raised, by additional taxes, from 900,000l. to one million sterling, and that certain commissioners should be vested with the full power of disposing of this sum in the purchase of stock (see Funds), for the public, in their own names. These commissioners should receive the annual million by quarterly payments of 250,000l., to be issued out of the exchequer before any other money, except the interest of the national debt itself; by these provisions, the fund would be secured, and no deficiencies in the national revenues could affect it, but such must be separately provided for by parliament.

The accumulated compound interest on a million yearly, together with the annuities that would fall into that fund, would, he said, in 28 years amount to such a sum as would leave a surplus of four millions annually, to be applied, if necessary, to the exigencies of the state. In appointing the commissioners, he thought, he said, endeavour to choose persons of such weight and character as corresponded with the importance of the commission they were to execute. The speaker of the house of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, the master of the rolls, the governor and deputy governor of the bank of England, and the accountant-general of the high court of chancery, were persons who, from their several situations, he thought highly proper to be of the number.

To the principle of this bill no objection was made, though several specious but ill-founded ones were urged against the sufficiency of the mode which the chancellor of the exchequer had adopted for the accomplishment of so great and so desirable an end. He had made it a clause in his bill, that the accumulating million should never be applied but to the purchase of stock. To this clause Mr Fox objected, and moved that the commissioners therein named should be impowered to accept so much of any future loan as they should have cash belonging to the public to pay for. This, he said, would relieve that distress the country would otherwise be under, when, on account of a war, it might be necessary to raise a new loan: whenever that should be the case, his opinion was, that the minister should not only raise taxes sufficiently productive to pay the interest of the loan, but also sufficient to make good to the sinking Revenue fund whatever had been taken from it.

If, therefore, for instance, at any future period a loan of six millions was proposed, and there was at that time one million in the hands of the commissioners, in such case they should take a million of the loan, and the bonus or douceur thereupon should be received by them for the public. Thus government would only have five millions to borrow of six; and from such a mode of proceeding, he said, it was evident great benefit would arise to the public.

This clause was received by Mr Pitt with the strongest marks of approbation, as was likewise another, moved by Mr Pulteney, enabling the commissioners named in the bill to continue purchasing stock for the public when it is above par, unless otherwise directed by parliament. With these additional clauses the bill was read a third time on the 1st of May, and carried up to the Lords, where it also passed without meeting with any material opposition, and afterwards received the royal assent.

The operation of this bill surpassed perhaps the minister's most sanguine expectation. The fund was ably managed, and judiciously applied; and in 1793 the commissioners had extinguished some millions of the public debt. The war, however, in which the nation was that year involved, and which continued for eight years after that period, made it necessary to borrow additional sums, so large, that many years of peace must elapse before the operation of the fund can contribute sensibly to the relief of the people.

The clear produce of the taxes raised on the people of this country was, in the year 1792, very near 17,000,000l.; and in the year ending 5th Jan. 1806, it amounted to the enormous sum of 48,890,866l.

hunting, a flethy lump formed chiefly by a cluster of whitish worms on the head of the deer, supposed to occasion the casting of their horns by gnawing them at the root.