The National Register.
London, England, 1821-10-08 00:00:00

THE NEW SHERIFFS.

An elegant breakfast was given by the Sheriffs of
Loudon on Monday morning, at Goldsmiths Hall, to
the Companies of Stationers and Goldsmiths; after
which they proceeded in their state carriages to Guild-
hall, attended by the Beadles of the two Companies,
with their colours, and two hands of music. They were
there met by the Lord Mayor, late Sheriffs, and City
Officers, when the whole proceeded in state to Black-
friars, and embarked on bond the City Barge, fur the
purpose of being presented to the Corsttor Baron in the
Court of Exchequer. This ceremony, as usual, made a
'splendid spectacle oil the water.
The venerable Cursitor Baron haviog been seated, Mr.
Column') Sergeant presented the Sheriffs elect to him.
The Common Sergeant then moved to record a war-
rant appointing William Oaten attorney for the new
Sheriff;. He text moved to record the appearance of
Messrs. Waithman and Williams, to return an account
of the issues and profits of their office, from the Feast of
St. Michael the Archangel, in the first year of the reign
of King George the Fourth, to the saute Feast in the
present year, viz. for one year.
The ex-Sheriffs were then sworn by the Cursitor Baron
to their accounts, and Inn in Mr. S. Colinridge as their
attorney to make the realm:.
The Officer of the Court then called upon the senior
Alderman to perform the old ceremony of counting the
horse-shoes and hob-nails, and cutting the st.eks.—We
have not been able to trace the origin and real intent of
this ceremony, but arc led to conclude it is a tenure by
which the Citizens of London hold lands from the
Crown. . . . .

The Officer of the Court standing on the table of the
Court with six horse-shoes, a hag of nails, three bundles
of sticks, and a small axe, exclaims—
" Tenants and occupiers of the Moors, in the county
of Salop, come forth and do your service."
The senior Alderman then stands upon the table, and
is asked how many shoes are there? He answers, Six.
The Baron's Clerk then says, " A good number."—
He then chops the sticks, which arc held by the Officer
of the Cour.

The tenants and occupiers of land in the parish of St.
Clement Danes are also called upon to do their service,
which service the Alderman performs by counting the
nails, which are tinned of the bag. Having ascer-
tained the number, he is asked how many there are?
He answers "Sixty-nne." The Baron's clerk," A good
number."
The ceremony ends with counting the nails.
The Common Sergeant, at the close of the business,
invited the old Baron to dine with the Lord Nlayor and
Sheriffs, lout the invitation was not acevred, on the
groom! that tie was engaged.
The proces,inn then left the Court, and returned in
the bar;4es to Black friars-bridge, under a salute of several
gut's, fired from Godfrey's yard. On lauding they prn-
ceeded to dinner.

Tue REV. Ma. BLACOW.—The infamous libel of
which this appropriate member of the Bridge-strect
gang was a few days ago convicted, is not the first
of which this slanderer had been found guilty.—
Some years ago, for tiome purpose equally pure as
his eulogy on Sharp and Co. this charitable divine
published anonymously a most atrocious libel on the
mother of a pupil who was intrusted to his tuition.
For this he was tried, and of course convicted; and
on passing sentence on him, Judge Grose made use
of the following expressions:—
" Richard Blucow, you are brought here to receive the sen-
tence of the Court, upon ail indictment charging you with hav-
ing composed and written an offensive, scandalous and malicious
libel, to sow discontent, and excite diaffection and discord in a
private family, between a husband and his wife, neither of whom
as it appears, had done any thing to you to provtke such un-
neighbourly conduct on your part. Although this is not a pub-
lic libel, yet, considered es a pirate libel, it bears the mast
criminal complexion of any I leave ever met with. It is a libel
of that domestic sort which carries with it a degree of malig-
nancy which I have never known paralleled. It is more decla-
ratory of the infamous conduct of u libeller convict, than any
thing that has fallen under my observation. The aggravations
of your offence are ,sormims. You are a minister of the gospel,
anti therefrae, if you had übst•rved there was any discord hetween
this gentleman and his wife, it was your peculiar duty to have
healed the wound, and to restore that filiation which should
ever subsist between the individuals of a thmily. It is difficult
to conceive a more degrading offence iu a person in holy ardeel,
than that you should, by an ontimndtit suggestion of his wife's
incontinency, have planted, like u base assassin, daggers in the
heart of him who had made you, I may say, a part of his
family, and who had intrusted you with the education of Ilia
child. Had the suggestion been founded in fact, every hour of
delay in imparting it would have been high treason to him who
admitted you as his confidential guest, and as the tutor of his
son, and thereby put it into your power to injuie him in the
tenderest part with so much the more secrecy."

An oyster, measuring 18 inches in circiuferenoe,
and weighing x t ounces, was lately taken from the
oyster-pit of M. 11 uuaiu Nlaiiii, at 11.titli1•ool.

IRELAND.

THE NEW LORD MAYOR AND SHERIFFS
DUBLIN, Oc r. Q.—Yesterday at two o'clock, the
late Lord Mayor, (Alderman Sir A. B. King, ban.)
the new Lord Mayor (Alderman Kingston James,)
with the rest of the Board of Aldermen, the Re-
corder of Dublin (Sir Jonas Greene), the late and
new High Sheriff's, City Officers, and Common
Council, met at the Assembly House, William-
street, from whence they proceeded in procession to
the Castle, when after an Address front the Recorder
to the new Lord Mayor, delivered in the presence
of his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, in which
he passed a high eulogium on his predecessor,
Alderman James was sworn into office.
In the evening the Lord Mayor had the honour
of entertaining at dinner in the grand banquetting
room his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant and suite,
a number of distinguished characters, and several
respectable citizens. His Lordship, with a degree.
of princely hospitality, invited all the Members of
the Common Council to the banquet.
A Catholic or two had also been invited, and,
having heard this, we did not all conceive it pos-
sible that their host could have prepared for them
such a reception as the deliberate revival of an ob-
noxious party toast.—We shall, however, lay before
our readers the flimsy apology of Mr. Alderman
James, for reviving, in the presence of the repre-
sentative of the King. a party toast, for the giving
of which, at a moment when every excuse was al-
lowable, another Alderman had recently incurred
the Bier's displeasure, and for which he was cen-
sured also by the King's Representative. How the
Lord Lieutenant could have considered the revival
of the toast, in his presence, after :he afftir of
Alderman Marley, in any other light than as a gross
offence, is to us not very intelligible.
There are several versions of this worthy Alder-
man's Speech. The report in the Correspondent
seems to be the most authentic—it having most
probably been written by the worthy Alderman the
next morning--w. 3 take it therefore, as conveying

his cool sentiments. This report is as follows:
" 'f he Lord Mayor theta rose, and said, " The toast
which I am shout to propose, has been uniformly given
upon the swearing-in dinners of my predecessors ; the
sentiments which are attached to it flitter materially, and
it is oaly by a reference to the feelings under which it i,
given that it becomes obnoxious or otherwise. We must
all admire the beauty of Christian charity, and of brothel ly
love ; and, in the arduous and difficult situation in which
thus early in life, I have been called nproi to fill the Civil
Chair, it will be my study, as it is my duty, to promote
as far as I can, the conciliatory disposition which it is our
most gracious Sovereign's wish should subsist among all
classes of his Majesty's subjects. Be assured, my Lords
and Gentlemen, that I would be the last man whose dis-
position would lead him to wound or irritate the feelings
of any of my Roman Catholic fellow•snbjects, with whom
I have ever lived, and I hope I ever will live, in the
strictest bond of harmony and brotherly love. And hi
the toast I sin about to submit, I do so av the head of the.
Corporation I have the distinguished honour now to ro.
present, ■s well as in accordance with my own political
consistency. I therefore give you—
" "Die Memory of King William the Third.'
" Tue applause was very great at this period, bat the
Lord Mayor, in the most dignified and truly conciliatory
matturr, very emphatically addressed the assembly,
hoping that the autiotinceinent of the toast would not
create exultation: as he, the Lord Almor, gave the me..
more of him, as the foutitirr of tile British Constitutioass
and the friend of civil and religious liberty, under the
hope, that, in such sense, it could not be offensive to any
man living. 'flit. company received and drank the toast
with peculiar marks of applause and approbation."
The Lord Lieutenant was at the elbow of the
new Lord Mayor when the toast was given, and
therefore it is to be inferred that it was given with
his entire concurrence. Indeed he took a step
which distinctly marked his approbation, having
scarcely stiff:lced the vague sentiment " universal
benevolence.' to be h rlf whispered from the Chair
when he gave " The Corporation of Dublin," the
significancy and apositeness of which, as associated
with " The Glorious Memory," which had scarcely'
been swallowed down, were generally felt and un-
derstood.

One of the invited was Lord Cloncurry ; how
his Lordship felf upon this occasion, the reader will
perceive by the following letter addressed by him to
a cotemporary Journal
sin,—Bein& name d as one present at the Lord
Mayor's dinner of yesterday, I beg leave to say (in order
to prevent misrepresentation of my condor!), th ir, w lien
his Lordship toasted King IVilliam, 1 turned down my
glass, and remain& st ated •
,` At table with the Lord Li, otenalit, and a guest of the
Lord Mayor I felt that it NI wild Ind be decorous for 1.0
inconsiderable a person to take fin 'her notice at the 1110.
Meld j I wiblr, 110%% I 'Pr, that the 1.0111 Iloyur, when lit
determined to icprolitice this given notice, not
only to the Lord Lieutenant, but to the Roman Catholics
whom he bad insited, and gene cede to all those slot likely
to forget, in one short month, the benevolent injunctions
of our sovereigns.

" Individually, I have a great resreet fur the inmnory
of King William the Third. Ile was a liberal Distehinmi
—NIIIII intended more good in Ireland Illar any King I ever
heard of, exits.' his present 111.i.jesty ; mei as Ma)or. and
Corporations are nut neresolaiily hislusiasis,they geol, rally
gise thin toast from party iir,tisea, and it has long hermit'.
a Lind of rasa-wurd among those who dealt( by the
and eselosios of their worthy fellow cisiseiss; to arrogate
in ti,inotres those perry litint•os: and ClllolllolPlif . Y laid&
omit of industry or Istria stuck' su atces:ar) tu them.