| AdminHistory | In 1804 the Commons investigated the financial condition of the Civil List, and as a result a number of changes were made in the composition of it. One of these changes involved the transfer from the Civil List of sundry payments, some of which were charitable grants of long standing. Amongst these payments was a sum of £5,945. 10. 0 for Protestant dissenting ministers and for the relief of poor French clergy and laity. In a Treasury paper of 3 July 1804 this sum, with others, is included in the estimates for 1804 under the description 'hitherto charged on His Majesty's Civil List Revenues'. It does not appear in the 1804 estimates of future charges on the Civil List.
And so the threat to the bounty foreshadowed in 1802 was carried out in 1804. An end was put to the royal charity inaugurated by William III, and future grants became subject to the vote of the House of Commons. But for a year or two the break with the past was not complete; or rather, is not completely apparent. For example, in October 1804 the French Committee received from the Treasury a sum of £3,436.8.0 (gross) for the half-year due 5 April 1804. From the gross sum had been deducted £152. 9. 0 being half a total deduction due to the deaths notified to the Treasury in the previous August. After a further deduction for tax, etc., the net yield was £3,196. 12. 9. And then again, Commissioners, still operative in 1806, in that year issued a warrant appointing new members of the French Committee. And after reciting the story of the grant from 1729 to 1802, the warrant quotes the subsequent order of the Treasury directing the deduction yearly of the sum due to deaths of pensioners in the previous year. The French Committee is then authorized by the warrant to distribute £6,872. 16. 0 yearly less 'the yearly income of the deceased'.
Whatever the explanation may be of these relics of earlier procedure, subsequent minutes of the French Committee reveal that it was completely under Treasury dominance. For example, a Treasury letter of 10 July 1813 lays down detailed instructions on the payment of allowances. Instructions already given should be strictly complied with. No new person should be put on the lists and existing allowances should not be increased. On 8 July 1819 the Committee's attention was directed to the fact that the statement of relief distributed in respect of sums issued to them in the years 1812 to 1817 showed a surplus of £53. 13. 3. The Treasury had noted various irregularities and issued a sharp reminder that any further breach of instructions would result in payments being disallowed. The Treasury also considered that a sum of £1300, plus the moiety of the estimate already issued, would be enough to pay the allowances, etc., for 1818. It would be tedious to recite such admonitions in detail; but they demonstrate the vigilance and close scrutiny given the lay Committees accounts by Treasury officials.
In 1831 steps were taken to bring to an end the grant to poor French ministers. The Secretary of the Treasury addressed a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him and the other Commissioners to consider ways and means for the reduction and eventual cessation of the grant with the least possible detriment to the beneficiaries. The Ecclesiastical Committee objected; but finally the resolution was taken and announced on 13 February 1833 to discontinue the various pensions as the recipients, whether churches or families, died out. Parliamentary Accounts and Papers 1833 show £1695 distributed to refugee clergy and £1673 to refugee laity. Accounts and Papers 1851 show comparative figures of £700 and £300 respectively. The last receipt from the Treasury recorded in the minutes of the lay Committee is for £60 on 2 October 1863. The gradual extinction of the pensions to laymen from 1863 to 1876 can be traced in the Treasurers' Accounts, and of pensions to Ministers and grants to churches up to 1870, in the minutes of the Ecclesiastical Committee. From another source it is known that respite for some years was allowed to one Church: the Savoy. But this church was in a quite special case and a special grant was made by the Treasury for its support up to 1884. |