The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

(Court mto jas4ton.

Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family
continue at Balmoral.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent has left
the north for Frogmore.

Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli have returned to Hugh-
endon-house, Bucks.
Viscount Palmerston arrived in town on Monday
from Broadlands.

alttropolitan.

THE ELECTION OF LORD MAYOR for the ensuing
year took place on Monday, and resulted in the
return of Alderman Finnis. The Lord Mayor elect,
after the announcement had been duly made, then
came forward and thanked his brother liverymen for
their choice. He gave also a brief intimation of
what should be his policy as Lord Mayor :
Gentlemen, I have been taught from my earliest youth
to respect the corporate institutions of this country, as I
am inclined to believe that they are the strongest and the
surest bulwarks of the liberty of the British people.
Gentlemen, I recollect full well, some two and forty years
ago, when my respected father brought me to this city and
placed me as an apprentice in the very premises which I
now occupy, that he impressed upon my mind that by an
honest and faithful discharge of my duties to my em-
ployers, and by obedience to my superiors, I might
at some future period rise, by the privileges which the
citizens of London possessed, to its highest office.
Gentlemen, how far this warning has been realised, your
act to-day convinces me—and it is my intention, I can as-
sure you, as it is my duty, to devote my whole time and
attention to the duties of the office, to uphold and main-
tain the rights, charters, and privileges of this city, to
support by every means in my power the various
charitable institutions of the city, and last, though not
least, to endeavour, by every means in my power, to
ameliorate the condition of the poorer classes of the com-
munity.

A vote of thanks to Lord Mayor Salomons was then
proposed aed unanimously carried. The Lord Mayor
acknowledged it :
I felt that I had great responsibility attaching to me;
and now that by your voices—by your unanimous vote to-
day—you have said to me that 1 have honourably and con-
scientiously discharged my duty to you, I teel relieved
from great responsibility, and only feel that 1 am wanting
in the manner in which I have to empress my gratitude to
you. I hope I at least may be considered now as one of
those persons in this country who have done something
for the nonconformists. I do not mean any particular
class of nonconformists, but I mean that large class of

nonconformists who are separated, some from the corn-
=union and some from the established religion of the
country. I have endeavoured to show that a man may
himself be a nonconformist without showing the least
slight to the religious feelings of others. I have thought
it my duty on all public occasions to pay that respect
which is due from a man in authority to the established
religion of the country ; for, unless a man founds his con-
duct upon the wide basis of a religious principle, he is
utterly unfit to be a leader of others, or to hold high office
in this country. I may, at the same time, here venture to
say, in the fulness of my heart, that it has afforded me the
greatest pleasure and delight to find myself so well sup-
ported as I have been by the clergy of every religious de-
nomination in this country. I have endeavoured to show
that I respected their religion; and all the religious
teachers of this country have shown that they respected
me, because they believed that I acted upon principle.

TIIE INAUGURATION OF SHERIFFS elected for the
ensuing year took place on Tuesday, according to
custom. The Lord Mayor, the day being a Jewish
festival, was necessarily absent. The sheriffs came
by water, as usual, and were received at Westmin-
ster by the Chief Baron. The Recorder, in intro-
ducing the sheriffs to his lordship, gave a sketch of
the personal history of Mr. Mechi --
In the person of Mr. John Joseph Mechi, senior sheriff,
and citizen and loriner, and who was connected with the
eastern division of the metropolis, they had a gentleman
of Italian extraction, but a man who was proud to be re-
membered amongst the merchants of the city of London.
lilthough he had sprung from the Italian race, who were
remarkable for their cultivation of the arts and sciences, he
was proud, he repeated, to be enrolled amongst the mer-
chants and men of business of this country. His father
was born in Home, but early in life he transferred the
scene of his pursuits, and was for a long time employed in