Star.
London, England, 1826-01-16 00:00:00

ALDESMEN.
•
The division of London into Wards, and the appoint-1
ment of. Aldermen to govern. them, were undoubtedly,
as before observed, of Sason origin ; but it would seem
not td have been long before the office assume I a cha-
racter soniewhat foreign to the genius of Alfred's insti-
tutions. So wise a Prince could not have intended
that an offiee of this importance should be filled with-
out any regard to merit or capacity ; and yet almost
the first thing we read of the office is, that it might be
acquired by any one, either by inheritance or purchase.
So much, indeed, was this the case, that the Wards were
called after their respective proprietors, and changed
names at they ate changed ; thus the Ward of Castle
Baynard was once called Simon Hadestnek's Ward ; the
Ward of Cheap, Henry de Froweyke's ward ; the Tower
Ward, William de Nadestoke's Ward, &c.
The abuses which necessarily arose from this rro•
,prietary system, led to repeated efforts on the part of
the cilzens to change the tenure of the office; and
at length from one of those coalitions between the
crown and the people, which are not uncommon in the
history of !evolutions, right of property was, in the
reign of Edward 11. wrested from the Aldernien, and
the citizens of each Ward were declared to have the
pow( r of electing annually the Alderman who was to
preside over it. So frequent an exercise, however, of
' the elective privilege, had also its peculiar inconve-
niences; and in 1394, it was ordered by Parliament, that
in lutirre t: e Alder men should "continue in office during
lie or good behaviour," and so the law continr:es.
In elections for Aldermen, the right of voting is con-
fined to freemen who are resident householders of the
w.rrd paying scot an lot, and an annual rent of not less
than IN. a year.
It is not necessary, however, that the person elected
sht.uld be a resident of the Ward. Citizens of eminence
often become candidates for the Alder man siii p of Wards,
with which they have previously had no pal ticular con-
nection. Should a person decline the office of Alder-
man, when elected to it, (which is, however, rarely the
case) he may be fined ; there is even a precedent for
imprisonment.
Each Alderman has the active direction or Warden.-
ship of the affairs of his Ward, under the general super-
intendence of the Lord Mayor; and is assisted by one
or more deputies, appointed by himself from among the
Common Councilmen for the Ward. Every Ward, too,
has -its Court of Wardmote or Common Hall, with
whiLlt the Alderman may advise on all matters touch-
ing the common welfare.
The pritiilege of. acting as Magistrates in the City
was to. merly confined to the Lord Mayor, the Recorder,
the Aldermen who had passed the chair, and the nine
senior Aldermen below it; but in the year 1741, George.
11. by letters patent empowered all the Aldermen of
London, without distinction, to act in future as Justice*
of the Peace within the City and its liber tier.
It was anciently the custom for the Magistrates of
the city of London, to have posts, painted and orna-
mented; set up at their doors, on which the Royal Pro-
clamations were fixed. Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and
several others of our old dramatists, notice this practice.
'These posts were usually newly painted on ea eying
into office, a custom which is alluded to by the satirical
Bishop of Salisbni y,when, in his" Microcosmographia,"
he says of an Alderman, " His discourse is commonly
the annals of his Mayoralty and what good government
there was in the days of his gold chain, though, the
doorposts were the onlythings that suffered reformation."
The dignity Alderman, like that rf the Lord
Mayor, had once more than ordinary protection ; and
in those turbulent times, when personal feelings and
resentment usurped the place of law and justice, it is,
recorded that a citizen was imprisoned and his right
hand cut off for assaulting an Alderman. Resistance
to the authority of an Alderman was commonly punish-
able by the loss of freedom, and imprisonment for a
year and a day.
The costume of the Alderman is a cloth gown of
violet or scarlet, lined with silk or'furred, according to
the season. On one r ccasion, an Alderman who neg-
lected to line his cloak according to the established
mode; was condemned by his brethren to a summary
punishment, amusingly characteristic of the claims of
this respectable body to the character which Shakspeare
has given of them, as being " with fat capon lined.
They decreed that the whole Court should go and break-
fast with him !