“His Royal Highness submitted the whole facts of the case to the Attorney- and Solicitor-General of her Majesty, and subsequently to Sir Thomas Wilde. Their opinion was, that his Royal Highness was not liable, in point of law, to the payment of rates, and that the admission by him of such liability might constitute a dangerous precedent, affecting the prerogatives of the Crown.
“In the letter which I addressed to you on the 15th of December, I informed you ‘that his Royal Highness had no disposition to resist any claim that could in fairness be made upon him, whatever might be the legal obligations.’ I have now to inform you, on the part of his Royal Highness, that if the parochial authorities had continued to insist on the payment of the demand, made as a matter of legal right, his Royal Highness would have felt himself compelled, by a sense of the duty which he owes to her Majesty, to resist the claim.
“You have informed his Royal Highness that the Vestry of Windsor has passed resolutions of which the following are copies:--
‘That the Vestry extremely regrets that the resolutions in reference to the rating of his Royal Highness Prince Albert passed at the Vestry Meeting held on the 18th September last, should have been so carried, inasmuch as this meeting is now fully aware that his Royal Highness is not in any way liable to be rated for Flemish Farm; and that this Vestry deprecates the garbled statements set forth in the public journals on this subject.’
‘That inasmuch as the maintenance of the poor presses heavily on the parishioners, a respectful memorial be now presented to his Royal Highness, praying him to take the state of the parish into his gracious consideration, and that such memorial be prepared and presented by the parish officers.’
“His Royal Highness infers from these resolutions that the Vestry distinctly admits that his Royal Highness is not in any way liable to be rated for the Flemish Farm; and his Royal Highness feels himself at liberty to take the course which is most satisfactory to his own feelings, and to pay as a voluntary contribution, a sum equal to the rate which would have been annually due had the legal liability of his Royal Highness been established.