The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-29 00:00:00

LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

At present there is some reason to apprehend that
the Lord Mayor Elect, in spite of his ardent desire
to the contrary, and to improve and modify the
civic pageant in conformity alike with good taste
and common sense, may yet be coerced into going
from Guildhall to Westminster on the 9th of
November in the antiquated and lumbering State
coach. The Entertainment Committee have agreed,
at his urgent solicitation, to dispense with the men
carrying banners and the rest of the pedestrian part
of the procession, which is a great point gained, but
in other respects, so far as they are concerned, the
pageant is to be made up in the accustomed manner,
including, of course, the State carriage, and pos-
sibly, for anything yet known to the contrary,
the men in tumour. Those of the Aldermen who
have expressed themselves in public on the subject,
with perhaps a single exception, are resolutely
opposed to any change, and at their meeting on
Tuesday last not one among them gave the slightest
countenance to the proposed modification. The
younger members of the Court remained silent, with
the exception of Alderman Stone, who spoke rather
in his capacity of Sheriff than of a magistrate, and

the discussion was confined to those of the members
present who had filled thG office of Lord Mayor,
and who were of one mind upon the subject. In
Common Council the case is somewhat different.
At their meeting on Thursday last the subject was
brought abruptly under consideration, without
notice of any kind, and at the end of a long
sitting, when only 57 of the 200 members of which

the body is composed were present. They had even
to suspend the orders to enable them to enter
upon the discussion, and it was commenced by Mr.
Gower, who moved, that in accordance with an old
resolution of the Common Council, the Lord Mayor
Elect be requested to use the State coach in his
progress from Guildhall to Westminster to be pre-
sented to the Barons of the Exchequer. It appeared

that the Town Clerk, who has the traditions and
usages of the Corporation at his fingers' ends, had
dug out from among their archives a resolution
passed on the subject by the Common Council 90
years ago, in the time of Lord Mayor Halifax, and
upon this precedent, which was produced at the
request of Alderman Wilson, Mr. Gower founded
his motion, which was carried by a majority of 25
in a Court of 57 members. That ancient document
recited that some of the chief magistrates of the
city in those days had relinquished the use of the
State coach on certain recurring occasions on which
it had long been the custom to use it, and the Com-
mon Council recommended that it should be used
in future on those occasions. The Town Clerk
stated that, notwithstanding that resolution, in his
time the state carriage had not been used on many
what were called State occasions, with the excep-
tion of the 9th of November (Lord Mayor's Day),
when it had always been used. After all, the reso-

lution of Mr. Gower, passed under these circum-
stances, and far from unanimously, on Thursday
last, amounted only to a civil request that the Lord
Mayor Elect would use the state coach on the

forthcoming occasion. It binds him to nothing ;
he may either comply with it or not, as he pleases.
On the other hand, he has been urged by upwards
of 200 men of standing in the city—eminent
bankers, merchants, traders, and others—to so cur-
tail and modify the pageant as to interfere as little
as possible with the ordinary traffic, the more so as
one great. line of thoroughfare leading from the
west-end into the city is now seriously narrowed and
diverted iu places by the viaduct now in course of
erection over the Holborn-valley. It is of coin-

paratively little use to curtail the pageant if the pon-
derous State coach is to be retained as part of it,
seine that the pace will be thereby retarded as much
aroma, probably, aware that the
coaeh whcn empty weighs nearly fiee tors. Although
drawn by six "topsoil in turning a corner the

draught is thrown almost entirely upon the two
wheelers, which are often much exhausted in conse-
quence for the moment, notwithstanding their fine
condition, and the bystanders before now have had
to assist in the difficulty. Nearly a fortnight has
still to elapse before the 9th of November, and it is
to be hoped that the Common Council and the En-
tertainment Committee may yet see the propriety,
in the public interest and in that of good taste, of
furthering the wish of the Lord Mayor elect to dis-
pense with the antiquated coach, and to go in his
private State carriage, which, like those of his pre-
decessors in office, is a stately and handsome equi-
page, drawn by four horses.