CIVIL LIST • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Civil List

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/sˈɪvəl lɪst/ Listen

Civil List

noun

A sum of money voted by British Parliament each year for the expenses of the British royal family.

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Etymology of 'Civil List'

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"Civil list" Quotes from Famous Books

... this power to bludgeon the Legislative Council and the Governor into compliance with its wishes. The Colonial Office made concessions, offering to resign all its taxing powers in return for a permanent civil list, that is, an assurance that the salaries of the chief officials would not be questioned annually. The offer was reasonable in itself but, as it would have hampered the full use of the revenue bludgeon, it was ...

— The Canadian Dominion - A Chronicle of our Northern Neighbor • Oscar D. Skelton

... Poor Matthias. He had thought Mr Gladstone "hopelessly prejudiced against" him, and was proportionately surprised when in August 1883 he was offered by that Minister a pension of L250 for service to the poetry and literature of England. Few Civil List pensions have been so well deserved. But Mr Arnold, as most men of his quality would have been, was at once struck with the danger of evil constructions being put by the baser sort on the acceptance of an extra allowance from public funds by a man who already had a fair income from them, ...

— Matthew Arnold • George Saintsbury

... expel popery, and keep out the Pretender. And, lest the army should be at a loss for business, I think it would be very prudent to employ them in collecting the public taxes for paying themselves and the civil list. ...

— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. VII - Historical and Political Tracts--Irish • Jonathan Swift

... and a consequent lighter aggregate burden on the subjects. Doubtless, the "overhead charges" would not be reduced to their practicable minimum. Such a governmental establishment, with its bureaucratic personnel, its "civil list" and its privileged classes, would not be conducted on anything like a parsimonious footing. There is no reason to apprehend any touch of modesty in the exactions of such a dynastic establishment for itself or in behalf of its underlying hierarchy ...

— An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation • Thorstein Veblen

... is devolved by the Constitution or by the law, and the appointing officers are properly held to a high responsibility in its exercise. The growth of the country and the consequent increase of the civil list have magnified this function of the Executive disproportionally. It can not be denied, however, that the labor connected with this necessary work is increased, often to the point of actual distress, by the sudden and excessive demands that ...

— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume IX. • Benjamin Harrison

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