Lord Mayor of London

“ There is no actual misfortune in not being Lord Mayor of London;—but when a man has set his heart upon the place, has worked himself into a position within a few feet of the Mansion House, has become alderman with the mayoralty before him in immediate rotation, he will suffer more at being passed over by the liverymen than if he had lost half his fortune. Now Sir Thomas Underwood had become Solicitor-General in his profession, but had never risen to the higher rank or more assured emoluments of other legal offices. ”

“ Will some of your correspondents kindly inform me where I can meet with an authority to prove the Lord Mayor of London is styled mayor by virtue of crown charters, and lord as lord of the manor of Finsbury? ”

“ INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.
PLATE 11.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN.
[Pg 107]
PLATE XII.
THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
"Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour." Proverbs, chap. iii. ver. 16.
Having seen the ignominious end of the idle apprentice, nothing remains but to represent the completion of the other's happiness; who is now exalted to the highest honour, that of Lord Mayor of London; the greatest reward that ancient and noble city can bestow on diligence and integrity. ”

“ Mayor lives while he is Lord Mayor, and here he gives great banquets. Sometimes the King and Queen come to lunch with him, and all the great people from abroad who visit England go to see the Lord Mayor. When the King makes a procession through London in state he is met at Temple Bar, where the City begins, by the Lord Mayor, who hands him the keys of the City ”

“ However, the Lord MAYOR improved the occasion, which we dare say judging from the liberal hospitality, or, in this instance hoss-pitality, of the Fishmongering Corporation, scarcely required improvement, to inform His Grace of BEAUFORT and other noble sportsmen that he too was a hunting man, and that Lord Mayors of London ought as a rule to he hunting men if they would keep up the ancient traditions of their office. ”

“ It is not likely that the privilege of electing the Lord Mayor will long continue to be in the hands of the Companies. It is not, indeed, worthy of a great{230} City that its Chief Magistrate should be elected by so small a minority as 8,765 out of the hundreds of thousands who have their offices and transact their business in the City: but while this privilege will cease, the Companies may remain and continue to exercise a central influence, at the least in London, over the Crafts and Arts which they represent. ”

“ In the year of the Lord 1189, in the first year of the reign of the illustrious King Richard, in the mayoralty of Henry Fitz-Aylwin, who was the first Mayor of London, these provisions and ordinances were made by the wise men of the City, for appeasing the contentions which sometimes arise among neighbours touching boundaries made or to be made between their lands, so that such disputes might be settled according to that which was then provided and ordained. ”

“ After receiving his education in England, he fell heir to large plantations in the West Indies, and, entering public life, became a member of parliament and alderman of London, and in 1762, and again in 1768, was elected lord mayor of London. ”

“ Besides, our Pharisees of reform conveniently forget that the copious banquets at which they turn up their envious eyes are mostly defrayed from private funds. The sheriffs, for instance, derive no aid from public moneys; their own fortunes provide the means for handsomely entertaining friends and strangers, and for dispensing open-handed charity. The Lord Mayor himself almost invariably draws upon his own resources to a large amount, in order to maintain the ancient reputation and actual present influence of the City of London. ”

“ I felt a little grieved at this; for the original emigrants of New England had strong sympathies with the people of London, who were mostly Puritans in religion and Parliamentarians in politics, in the early days of our country; so that the Lord Mayor was a potentate of huge dimensions in the estimation of our forefathers, and held to be hardly second to the prime minister of the throne. The true great men of the city now appear to have aims beyond city greatness, connecting themselves with national politics, and seeking to be identified with the aristocracy of the country. ”

“ The result of the elections turned out to be largely in favour of the Puritan opposition. The new Common Council, like the House of Commons, would support "King Pym" and his policy; whilst the more aristocratic Court of Aldermen would side with Charles and the House of Lords.484 It cannot be doubted that the new council was more truly representative of the inhabitants of the city, and better able to give expression to their wishes than the last. There was only wanting a popular lord mayor. ”

“ He says that so long as he and his family are preserved, so long will he strive to do his duty towards his fellow men. There be many like him--our good Lord Mayor for one; and my Lord Craven, who will not fly, as almost all the great ones have done, but stays to help to govern the city wisely, and to see that the alms are distributed aright to the poor at this season. ”

“ The lord mayor is more ornamental than useful. The local government is more like our State organization, with one legislative body, consisting of 118 county councillors elected by the boroughs, and another of nineteen aldermen appointed by the council. As London has about five times as many people as Kansas and much harder problems of administration to be solved, the government is a big thing. ”

“ Numberless spectators, upon every house and at every window, dart their desiring eyes on the procession; so great indeed was the interest taken by the good citizens of London in these civic processions that, formerly, it was usual in a London lease to insert a clause, giving a right to the landlord and his friends to stand in the balcony, during the time of "the shows or pastimes, upon the day commonly called the Lord Mayor's Day." ”

“ The Lord Mayor is a very grand person indeed. He is the head of the City, and a new Lord Mayor is chosen every year. There are other big buildings around near the Bank, and just here seven streets meet, and there is an open space. ”

“ After the swearing in at Guildhall, when the Mayor publicly takes the oaths, accepts the sword, the mace, the sceptre, and the City purse, he proceeds with the late Mayor to the Mansion House, and they conjointly give what is called the 'farewell dinner;' the Lord Mayor elect proceeding to his own private residence in the evening, a few days being allowed for the removal of the late Lord Mayor. ”

“ More, there is a recorder of London, a grave and learned lawyer, skilful in the customs of this city, also assistant to the lord mayor: he taketh place in councils and in courts before any man that hath not been mayor, and learnedly delivereth the sentences of the whole court.
The sheriffs of London, of old time chosen out of the commonalty, commoners, and oftentimes never came to be aldermen, as many aldermen were never sheriffs, and yet advanced to be mayor, but of late (by occasion) the sheriffs have been made aldermen before or presently after their election. ”

“ When Michaelmas-day came round and Sir Samuel Dashwood—a tried Tory who had sat for the city in the only parliament convened under James II, as well as in the first parliament under William and Mary—was elected to the mayoralty chair, the choice of the citizens was highly commended by the lord keeper,1888 and the queen accepted an invitation to dinner on lord mayor's day. ”

“ Orders to be sett downe by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London for taking awaie such enormities as be meanes not only to continue but increase the plague and disorders of the Citie; being taken out of the proclamations set out by the Citie and the articles sett downe for providing for the poor and setting them to work. ”