The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1848.

Yesterday the ancient City of London witnessed
something more than an idle pageantry. The ninth
of November again revived the ceremonials which
have for centuries marked the occasion of the instal-
lation of the Chief Magistrate of the British capital.
Nothing was wanting to complete the spectacle, such
as it appeared in the days of `VAT TYLER, or such
as it was in the primitive epoch befcre the Chronicles
were penned by HOLINSEIBD. Every formality pos-
sessed of the smallest significance, every garment
invested with the time-honoured associations of the
municipality, every decoration symbolical of civic
power such as it existed under the reign of the elder
Plantager (As, was pre nerved in the procession, or
displayed in the banquetting-hall, on the occasion of
the festivities of yesterday. Watermen in Livery;
Wine Porters in the dress of Vintners ; Barge-
Masters in Uniform ; Wardens of the Worship-
ful Company of Bowyers ; Yeomen of the Guard ;
Heralds in their emblazoned Tabards ; Far-
riers and Trumpeters ; Secondaries and Pleaders;
the Comptroller and the Remembrancer; the Cham-
berlain and the Town Clerk ; the City Solicitor and
the Common Sergeant; Bacchus drawn by Leopards;
Ancient Knights armed cap- a-pie, and attended by
by their esquires—nothing was wanting to perfect
the " show," precisely as it appeared in the Mayoral-
ties of Sir THOMAS GRESHAM or of Sir RICHARD
WHITTINGTON. It was the same pageant in every
particular as it had been when cowslips grew in the
gardens of the Savoy Palace, or when blackberries
ripened on the hedgerows in Tottenham Court-road.
In referring, however, to the singularity of this
almost unique instance of the preservation of the
customs of :antiquity, we are not endeavouring
by any means to excite an empty satisfac-
tion in the minds of any fanatical antiquary or infa-
tuated archaeologist. We are merely solicitous that
the meaning of all this gaudy exhibition should be
accurately recognised and that the perpetuity of the
old civic ceremonials should be looked upon as a
token of the solidity and stability of
our peculiar in-
stitutions. We would have it remarked that the con-
trast afforded by the metropolis of England and the
capitals of the principal states on the Continent is
more than superficial.

Throughout the whole of the antiquen forms of in-
auguration—from the moment w
MAYOR and his attendants took water at a
LORDe
.ars
to the moment when they took wine at Guildhall—
the
same scrupulous adherence to precedent
was
visible yesterday as on every other preceding occa-
sion of the same character. And this, after the
extraordinary convulsions of Revolution which have
shaken the constitutions of our neighbours to their
very foundations ! Of all the public spectacles which
can be witnessed in these islands, there is, perhaps,
none so suggestive of the mixed character of our
government, and of the popular organization of our
community, as that which may be seen on the evening
of any ninth of November from the gallery
of the old banquetting-chamber at Guild-
hall. There it is that the loyal and
industrious citizens of London assemble to greet the
commencement of the mayoralty of their Chief Ma-
gistrate, and there it is that that distinguished func-
tionary of the capital receives, as his guests, his fellow-
merchants of the city, and the most illustrious
among his contemporaries, the Ministerial advisers of
the SOVEREIGN, the brightest ornaments of the judi-
cial bench and of Imperial Parliament, the first
among the ecclesiastical dignitaries, and the most
renowned of our naval and military commanders. Upon
any occasion this august assemblage of men eminent for
their wisdom, or their genius, or their courage, or their
probity, or their virtues, or their variety of achieve-
ments, is interesting, but yesterday the interest was
in an especial degree enhanced by the recollection of
the career and character of the gentleman there and
then installed as the Chief iffigistrate. If the bio-
graphy
of Sir JAMES DUKE be not characterised by that
romance
which illustrates the history of so many of
his celebrated predecessors, it certainly affords a
brilliant and remarkable example
of the perseverance,
th
enterprize, and honourable consistency

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