Connecticut western news., 1886-12-22
LONDON CITY.
Tinsel Splendor of the Lord
 Mayors Position.
How the Government of tie Great Me-
 tropolis is Conducted

How the Government of tie Great Me-
 tropolis is Conducted.
 A London letter to the New York | Commercial Adoertiser says: A greater difference between the mode of election and the functions of lord mayor of London and q mayor of New York it would be difficult to conceive. In your mayoralty your citizens vote direct for the candidates for the mayors office, and, when elected, that functionary is the executive officer of the whole city. Here things are totally different. There is no popular election here, and the lord mayor when chosen merely rules over tiny, ininitesimal DOT tion of the vast London of to-day, viz. /: the so-called "city" proper, an area ex- tending from the Tower of London to tho Temple, and from Holborn to the river--a mere island in Q constantly de- clining population. There arc some 50,- 900 bona tidc inhabitants of the "city" proper, and some 4,500, 900 outside who are without any municipal institu- tions. It seems difficult to realize so ex- traordinary condition of things, aud vet this is the state of London to-day. Threatened men, it is said, live long; and the same seems to be true of threatened institutions. For this little "city' cor poration which controls vast wealth and which arrogatcs to itself a position it is no longer entitled to occupy has been threatened for some time by radical on- slaughts, and yet it still lives and had its annual gala day last Tuesday.
 Nor is the lord mayor selected by popular vote, for the city corporation is perhaps the closest and least popular body in the country. A lord mayor is each year selected by rotation from among the city aldermen who have served the office of sheriff. The persons who make the selection arc the 'livery men" of the various city guilds, who meet for that purpose on December 29. In past times these so-called livery men were genuine traders carrying on busi- ness within the city of London. To-day many of them have no connection what ever with the city; the livery companies are now bodies of wealthy men, into whose ranks possession of money and profession of tory politics are the neces- sary conditions of entrance. Every al- derman is the livery man of guild, and the court of aldermen have the right to grant powers to the livery companies to increase their livery, i. C., to increase tho persons who can purchase the legal rightt vote in the election of city off cers and parliamentary representatives. Thus the whole government and suffrage of the "city" is based on money, and a more corrupt arrangement probably does not exist in the world.
 There are twenty-six aldermen in the "city," each representing one ward. Some of these wards are absurdly small, one of them containing less than 300 constituents, so that lord mayor of London may have been originally elected by less than 150 votes as an al- derman. When in office the lord mayor is judge of the central criminal court though he may be as ignorant of law as Hottcntot of the differenta calculus), justice of the peace, and chairman of the court of aldermen, tho court of common council and tho cour
 of common hall. He is also a member o1 the privy council, chief butler at a roya
 coronation and dispcnscr-in-chief o civic hospitality. When I add that i
 has sometimes happened that lort
 mayor could not speak the Englisl
 language without somo painful
 errors common to cockneydom , the reader will have a sens
 of the charming incongruity of things , A lord mayor has q chaplain provided
 for him to look after his spiritual wei ! fare, but with strict injunctions to avoit
 mention of all ugly texts, such as tha ) describing the difficulty of rich men en , tcring into the kingdom of heaven. Tn ) lord mayor is further allowed e10, ,O0
 ($50, 000) per annum for his ordinar. l years expenses, the use of GAO, 900 wortl
 of city plate and a huge clumsy gil } carriage, which is said to be constant, needing large sums for repairs to proven
 it from falling in pieces. The lord may J or has robes and civic chain, and tn ) aldermen and councillors have robe J also. The common council is compose n of 206 persons. It elects most of tn : officers of the city and has unllmite
 control over the cash.