The Duke of Wellington and his Ministry resigned office in November,
1830, because the House of Commons wished to appoint a Select Committee
to examine the Civil List. King William IV., according to the words of
a letter written by him to Earl Grey, on December 1st, 1830, felt
considerable "alarm and uneasiness" because Joseph Hume and other
Radical members wished to put some check on the growing and already
extravagant royal expenditure. He objects "most strenuously," and says,
referring in this especially to the Duchy of Lancaster: "Earl Grey
cannot be surprised that the King should view with jealousy any idea
of Parliamentary interference with the only remaining pittance of an
independent possession, which has been enjoyed by his ancestors, during
many centuries, as their _private and independent estate_, and has now,
as such, lawfully devolved upon him in right of succession. That he
should feel that any successful attempt to deprive the Sovereign of this
independent possession will be to lower and degrade him into the state
and condition of absolute and entire dependence, as a pensioner of
the House of Commons; to place him in the condition of an individual
violating or surrendering a trust which had been held sacred by his
ancestors, and which he is bound to transmit to his successors. The King
cannot indeed conceive upon what plea such a national invasion of the
_private_ rights, and such a seizure of the private estates, of the
Sovereign could be justified."