THE COST OF ROYALTY.
Here are a few statistics lately published that will doubtless prove interesting to the reader. The royal family of England costs the British government, in round numbers, $3,000,000 annually. Of this sum the Queen receives nearly $2,000,000 a year, besides the revenue from the Duchy of Lancaster, which amounts to a quarter of a million. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland receives $100,000 a year for his services and expenses, and the Prince of Wales $200,000 a year. The President of France receives $240,000 a year for salary and expenses, an enormous salary when it is remembered that the republic is sweating under a stupendous national debt of over $6,000,000,000—the largest debt ever incurred by any nation in the world. Italy can have ten thousand men slaughtered in Abyssinia and still pay her King $2,600,000 a year. The civil list of the German Emperor is about $4,000,000 a year, besides large revenues from vast estates belonging to the royal family. The Czar of all the Russias owns in fee simple 1,000,000 square miles of cultivated land, and enjoys an income of $12,000,000. The King of Spain, little Alfonso XIII., if he is of a saving disposition, will be one of the richest sovereigns in Europe when he comes of age. The state allows him $1,400,000 a year, with an additional $600,000 for family expenses. We are said to be the richest nation on earth, yet our President's salary is only $50,000 a year. It was only $25,000 from 1789 to 1873.