The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-09 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

LORD MAYOR'S D.Y.
ARRIVAL OF THE LORD MAYOR
AT WESTMINSTER.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.
On the arrival of the civic barges at Westminster-
bridge, the Lord Mayor aad the other City functi3n-
aries disembarked, and having formed into proces-
sion, proceeded at once, through Westminster Hall,
to the Court of Exchequer. A great number of
persons bad collected on the bridge to witness the
debarkation, and Palace-yard and the Hall were also
crowded with spectators. The Court itself was filled
in every part, and amongst the auditory were several

of the fair sex.
At a quarter to two o'clock the Lord Mayor and
Sir James Duke, Bert., the late Lord Mayor, entered
the court, accompanied by the Learned Recorder,
Mr. Alderman Salomons, Mr. Alderman ...Challis,
Under • Sheriffs Wire and Millard, Mr, Secondary Pot-
ter, Mr. Charles Pearson, M.P., the City Solicitor ; the
Lord Chamberlain, Mr. Hughes Hughes ; Mr. Prit-
chard, the High Bailiff of Southoark, and several of the
members of the Common Council. The civic party then
took a standing position on the bench reserved for
Queen's Counsel. At this moment the Learnd Judges,
the Lord Chief Baron, Mr. Baron Parke, Mr. Baron
Alderson, and Mr. Baron Rolfe took their seats upon
the bench, each vtearing a black cap, a cir-
cumstance which elicited an irrepressible burst
of laughter from the members of the bar
and the crowd in court, in which ebulli-
tion of mirth their Lordships could not refrain
from joining. A great number of well-dressed ladies
occupied the jury box and every available space on
the bench beside the Learned Judges.
The Learned RECOZDER then addressed the Court
as follows :—My Lord Chief Baron, I have the honour
to present to your Lordships and this Court the
Right Honourable Thomas Farncomb, elected by the
citizens of London to fill the office of Lord Mayor
for the ensuing year. The gracious approval
of her Majesty the Queen has ratified the
choice of the citizens. The Lord Mayor,
a native of Sussex, is a descendant of the
ancient family of Farncomb, several members of
which have been for many generations large proprie-
tors, of land, and extensively engaged in agriculture
in that county. In evidence of the antiquity
of this family, originally situated in the
vicinity of Hastings, and to which his Lordship'S
recent elevation in our ancient city attaches an
interest, the curious observer will find registered in
the inquisitions of the county, that so early as the 17th
,year of the reign of Edward, IV., a chantry, called
" the Farncomb Chantry," which was liberally en-
dewed with lend and other meansewas founded by ME-
Hip, a widow of the Farncomb family, in the Chu:ch of
St. Thomas, NV inchilsea. The father occupied the
station of a landowner, and was extensively engaged
in the cultivation of the soil, but observing
a superior aptitude for business in Thomas
Farncomb, h's third son, he determined to
qualify him by education fur a mercantile life, and
caused him to he planed in situations of trust and
manngemen t in several commercial firms in the
borough. The progre scf Mr. Farncomb was rapid.
He became the proprietor of one of the largest wharfs
on the Surrey side of the river, which he has occupied
for a period of forty years, carrying on the business
of a wharfinger in that locality with eminent success.
this extensive concern be has associated the
pursuing of a merchant and a shipowner, and of a
banker also, first at Hastings, and afterwards in
London, being one of the earliest promoters and a con
tinuing.director of the London and Westminster Bank,
- the first joint-stock bank established in this city.
Having acquired considerable property in land, both
in Sussex and Surrey, he became, and has remained,
an active magistrate for those counties for very
nearly twenty years. In 1840 he was elected one
of the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, and in the
following year he was chosen an alderman of the ward
of Bassisshaw, over which he still presides. He has
reaped the reward of assiduity, ability, and ingenuity
in his commercial career. He has won the esteem of
his friends and fellow-citizens by his blameless and
amiable deportment in public and private life. He
is familiar with the duties of a magistrate ;
and in cases of emergency his character and bearing
will command the cordial co operation of the member,
of the Court of Aldermen, and of the great body of
the citiz-ns who have contributed to place him in the
exalted station of chief magistrate. He enters, indeed,
nn hii arduous duties in the evening of life, not insen•
sible of the difficulties attaching to the high trust
committed to his charge, but steadily keeping in view
the bright example of many loyal citizens, and of his
eminent predecessor. I feel well assured he will
not be found wanting at the post of honour
or in the path of duty. The late Lord
Mayor is; also in attendance_ on your Lord-
ships. His year of office is at an end and
all its duties are fulfilled. Happy and successful in
whatever he has undertaken from the com
mencement to the close of his brilliant career,
the aim and object of his official life have
been the honour, the interest, and the prosperity
of London ; and he has achieved a suitable reward in
becoming one of the representatives in Parliament of
the first city in the empire. He has dispensed
with becoming splendour the ancient hospitality
of the Mansien.house ; he has assembled under
its roof distinguished members of every pro-
fession and of every class, of literature and of
science; he was the foremost to encourage by his
example the liberal support of the charitable insti
tutions of the country—he earnestly employed
the means at his disposal to remove the causes of
disease, and to check the ravages of plague. Towards
the conclusion of his mayoralty he saw the comple-
tion of a great work so near his heart—the foundation
of the fortunes of many, as it is of his own—the Coal
Exchange. He has received under the dome of that
new edifice, as the guests of the Corporation of
London, the Royal Consort of her Majesty, Prince
Albert, the Royal Children, the Prince of Wales and
the Princess Royal ; and in token of her Majesty's
high approbation, and in memory of that auspicious
event her Majesty has been graciously pleased to
confer the dignity of Baronet on Sir James Duke, the
late Lord Mayor.

The Loan CHIEF BARON—My Lord Mayor, I beg
to con eratulate you on having attained that honour
upon which the learned 'and eloquent Recorder has
expatiated in his address to the Court. You appear
lore as the first magistrate of the greatest
city in the empire. You appear here, among
other purposes, to claim certain rights which
belong to that great city of which you are the
chief magistrate, and the ceremony which takes place
on this occasion is not to be considered as a mere idle
pageant, for in rea:ity it is to claim on your part, and
on the part of the first city of this empire, and of the
whole world, those privileges which have existed from
time immemorial—a claim which shows you have
long possessed those immunities which attach to the
great city of London, exhibiting in itself a model of
the free institutions which prevail throughout the em-
pire, showing how loyalty and liberality may be entirely
united, and how the freest institutions are those
under which commerce will flourish, the social arts be
brought forth to public view and encouraged, charity
be everywhere observed, manifestations of hospitality
prevail, and all those arts which belong to the highest
civilized condition of man flourish in the highest degree.
I rejoice to hear the high account given by the
Learned Recorder of your past life and services, and
doubt not, during your mayoralty, you will continue
to deserve the good opinion of your fellow-citizens,
by pursuing the same career of useful merit, a cha-
racter to which yuu have so well-founded a claim, In
considering the course you may have to observe it is
difficult not to reflect at once upon the high example
which has recently been before you, and of the
possibility of attaining so:much excellence as has been
exhibited in the case of the late Lord
Mayor ; but of this I am quite sure,
that at the close of your year of office
you will be presented by your Learned Recorder as
having earned that approbation which is the highest
reward the citizens of London can confer upon you,
and a citizen can possibly expect. To you, the late
Lord Mayor, I begito offer my congratulations that you
return, having undoubtedly eminently discharged all
yoar important duties, into comparatively private life.
You have indeed illustrated your year of office by the
display of everything that could belong to a patriotic
citizen and upright magistrate—the man ever
ready to obey every :call that could be made upon
him in every situation in which he might stand
to hi; fellow citizens. I am happy to congratu-
late you that, remembering how you have fostered
every valuable institution—how you have discharged
every public duty—how you have met everycall
upen you, whether upon your public conduct
or private resources—l congratulate you that your
fellow-citizens have, during your mayoralty, conferred
upon you the higheit honour they have at their dis-
posal, and have elected you one of their representa-
tives in Parliament, and also that her Majesty has, at
the c'ose of your career, conferred upon you the highest
digoity which has ever been conferred upon a person
in your situation, meriting the approbation of the
Sovereign. i feel assured that, in returning into
comparative privacy, the discharge of those public
duties that remain to you will occupy the whole of
your attention, and that you will continue to deserve
that' approbation and to meet that sympathy in the
discharge of them which hitherto you have always
experienced.
Sir James Duke bowed his acknowledgments.