The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-11-01
The Lord Mayor.
AN OFFICE THAT HAS CONE DOWN FROM UN
KNOWN AyTiQUITY-LoNDoS's CHIEF FUNc
TTONARY.

KNOWN ANTIQUITY-L0SDONS CHIEF fuNo-
TTONARY.
The Latin or French mayor, the English
Tor let us, greatly daring, obey the dictates
OF common sense and call blm SaXon) alder
man, and the common councilman, who Is,
as Mr. Calverley might say, ''casual
fancy mongrel,n are 9Il-at any rate IN the
case OF London-of great antiquity, but OF
an antiquity exceedingly difficult to trace
to any definite source OF beginning. That
the Mayor OF London was long before he
became lord mayor, and that even longer
time passed before he became mayor
at all, is known. He or his prototype orig
finally bore the less familiar name OF por-
treeye, which still exists in some out-of-
the-way places, and has nothing TO do With
portlLs, a port, hut much with pOrtd, gate.
| lie kept the gates Of the city against in
trading mobiles, who wished to bring itinto
their seignory, and occasionally against the
| king himself. He was. in fact, city sher-
| III, though he neither lasted long enough.
nor became common enough IN mems
mouths, to get his name glibly altered like
his county compeer. AS for aldermen, they
are more puzZling even than mayDiS, and
they have peculiarly Of their own in sug-
costing an apparently deusiye parallelsm
with the great Saxon officers OF the same
name. Some say they were originally
heads OF guilds, which at least supplies an
Ineligible explanation Of tine unique con-
nection existing between the city c0mpa-
MES and the election to the mayoralty,
| though not TO the other dignites. More
over, at one time the office used to be he
reditary, and there are even records which
NI,N Of nj "a H.
lstratiye abuses-the abuse which more
than any other ruined the ancient regime in
France-namely. the purchase and sale OF
hereditary appointments existed in regard
to il. As for the common council, the in
quirer is pretty nearly forced to fall back
| on Topsy's famous explanation that he
aspects ii growed." At one time the alder
men or their predecessors were pretty GER
tainly the mayOr'sso sole councillors, with the
exception OF the occasionally assembled
but early disused folkmote. The principle
OF representation. which seems to be ar least
as inseparably British as roast beef, SUI
perseGed this clumsy institution, and COM
mon councils came into being. 1t may be
observed that London has always had in
this respect considerable advantage over
many. il not most, OF the unreformed cor
porations, not a few Of which were, by
whatever name their members might be
called-portreeves, jurats, and the like
not only very small, but also very close
| bodies.
1t is curious that Of late years, though
| there have sometimes been difficulties
about choosing between different candi-
dates for the mayoralty, there has never
been, despite the nervousness OF the office,
the difficulties which frequently occur
even in important corporations, the diff
Guilty OF getting somebody to take IT, In
some cases fines are said to have been i'm
posed on recalctrants. and it was the me-
diaval practice I'VE think ii extended to
London itself OF pulling his house about
the ears OF any man unpairiotic enough to
refuse the service which his fellow
citizens imposed on him. The truth is
that TO be the mayor in medieval times re-
quircd something more than hospitable
readiness TO ask anybody TO dinner. How
ever though they sometimes Jared hardly,
the MAYORS OF the city generally knew how
TO hold their own and save for moment,
lust before the revolution, the last three
centuries have at least scarcely seen time
when they did not. II is amusing to com
pare the famous Jest OF that lord mayor,
who, when James |. threatened 10 remove
the sunlight Of his presence and his court,
requested that his majesty would kindly
leave the Thames behind him, with much
less generally-knOwn, more tragic, but a
still quainter story of the same gracious
monarch and a bishop Of Durham. The
bishop, it seems, gave his majesty bad
small-beer. Thereupon the King scolded
him with such sharpness that he took to
his bed and died. The story is the odder
in that in those days Il bishop Of
Durham was a very high and mighty
prince, enjoying for life revenues
and jurisdiction which certainly might
have encouraged him TO look any
body in the face. But 1t Is pertinent to this
subject in the following way. For il has
undoubtedly been a principle with lord
mayors Of London, in the first place, not
to give kings or anybody else bad small
beer; and in the second, not to take scold
ings from anybody-even from kings. The
yindication Of this latter part OF their dn-
ties has not recently been called for. The
former is admittedly discharged with much
punctuality.-LOndOn Daily NelcS.