The National Register.
London, England, 1818-09-27 00:00:00

LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

Mr. J. Daviee moved the .diseuesion on a report ofa
committee, recommending that when the day fur swear-
ingin the Sheriffs or Lord Mayor should happen to be
Sunday, it should be altered to thc..day before or the
day Aker.

Mr. Dison.saia I.c might be deemed irreligious, but
there was more danger, :perhaps, in those who were
righteous overmuch ; re.al blinded the understanding.
For his own part, he saw nothing impropor iu admi-
nistering the solemn and religious obiigation of an oath
to a magistrate on a Suruluv. Nothing could be a
mare impressive lesson to the young and rising gene-
ration thau to beheld such solemnity, and at the sane
time it would stitawate the,. to eorrectue.s of conduct
and attention •to their mural mid n.iligions duties,
through which alone they. could hope to attain similar
honours at the hands af their fellow citizens.

Mr. Davies thought it bad been well known that
was not to be ridiculed out of his opinions, or out of
any thing which he had to propose to that Court.
Gentlemen, he hoped, had lived long enough to know
that much good bad been done by persons of reli-
gious sentiments. He maintained that the Sabbath
day ought to be kept holy. and he would ask if a reli-
gious observance of it was consistent with the great
and tumultuous procession usual on the swearing in of
every Lord Mayor. The appointment of the Sabbath
day for that purpose would have been purely ta...cilyntal,
and not at all in the contemplation of thus who framed
the act, that it should be 4so employed. To the simple
swearing in of the Lord Mayor he would nut object ;
but who recollected its ever taking place without the
procession being attended by disorderly persons ? He
hoped that the Court would take care that the Lord
Mayor shotild be sworn in on some other day than
Sunday, and that they would not sutkr religion to be
wolfed at.

Mr. Dixon said, the • Judges thought no harm in
dining together on the first Sunday of Trinity Term.
For his part, he would rather have the diniug portion
of the civic ceremonies put ore from Sunday, and he
hoped that future Lord Mayors and Sheriffi would
take care to postpone ibeir entertainments from
Sunday till some other day in the week.
Mr. Alderman Goolbehere said, that magistrates al-
luded to were obliged to serve one year, according to
law ; and if they were sworn in on Saturday or Moo-
day, they . would serve either a day more or a day h.ta;
than the complete year Btmides, before they could
make any alteration in these mutters, they must have
an act of the legislature. He had attended both the
ceremony and the entertainment given afterwards on
many occasions, and never witneastat any disorder, but
much of good fellowship, peace, • and. harmony.
Alderman Weidman said, that in delivering an opi-
nion respecting a question on eating and drinking, no
man could be more at a loss than he was, inasmuch as
he had boon but a short time in a !situation from which
he could derive much information on those topics
which flirnished standing jests upon the Corporative.
He cared as little about those meetings as any man,
but he could not agree with the recommendation
the Committee, which assumed that the Lord Mayor,
Judges, and other grave personages, could not meet
to swear in Sheriffs without commit ing some cxce:s
This practice %% as instituted in tinter quite us religioua
as the present, and had never been complained of till
now. " The Court ought not to pass a vote of censurc
on itself, by showing to the Corporation that it could
nut met without launching into excesses.
Mr. Dixon then said, that, in order that this ques-
tion might die a natural death, he moved that the report
should lie on the table, which was carried in the af-
firmative.