Year: 1877

A Citizen of London.


New York World.


As 1t is announced that General Grant
was to be presented with the freedom of
the City of London in gold box, it may
be worth while to explain the signif-
canoe of this token of esteem, which, if
we are not mistaken, has never before
been conferred upon an American. The
City of London, as we presume our read
ers to know, is municipality within a
metropolis, and is ruled by its own gov
ernment founded upon the votes of its
freemen, while the rest of the mighty
capital of Great Britain, including the
enormous majority of its inhabitants and
the greater part of its area, is governed
by Parliamentary authority. The his
tory of the liberties of London makesone
of the most interesting and important
chapters in the annals of British freedom,
and the Lord Mayor is so far from being
mere pageant and pomp that he still
does as much work as any Cabinet Min
lister, while his privileges put him face to
face with the Grown within the city
limits. Within those limits he takes pre-
cedence of all the royal family, nor can
the sovereign enter those limits save with
his formal permission. Sir James Shaw,
in the time of George III, compelled the
first gentleman in Europe" to bow to
these civic prerogatives. The citizens
of London have many rights and priv
ileges of their own, and it has long been
the custom of the city to offer the war
rant of their franchise, as being the most
precious thing the corporation possesses,
to eminent personages whom they de-
sired to honor. The process is for the
citizens, meeting in what is called Com
mon Hall, to vote to bestow this war
rant. The parsonage to be honored by
it is then notified, and upon some con.
venient public occasion he is expected to
appear before the City Chamberlain, an
official whose title is preserved in our
own municipal organization, and who in
London is the conservator of the
"chamber" or treasury of the city and
the guardian and supervisor of all ap-
prentices. General Grant will be duly
brought into the presence of this func-
tionary; the clerk and officers of the
chamber will put their names down with
his in the proper book as his "compur- "
gators" making themselves responsible
for his good citizenship; the Chamber
lain will administer to him the oath of
fidelity, shake hands with him and give
him in a gold box slip of parchment
warranting to him, and to his children
dwelling within seven miles of the city,
the franchise of freeman of London.
Under this franchise General Grant will
be at liberty to carry on any retail trade
within the limits of the City of London
without being taxed at the gates on the
goods he brings in he will be exempted
also from compulsory service in the
British army or navy. If he elects to
live within the city limits-rather long
way from the West End which is max.
ing so much of him just now-he will
be free from tolls and customs through.
out all England and parts Of the sea
and his children being left orphans will
have the right to become wards of the
city and to put their property for safe
keeping into the City Chamber. HI
will also, we believe, have the right te
hunt in the county of Middlesex-whicl
may seem to him a cruel mockery, seeine
that he is Just now lion himself and il


moro in the Way of being hunted thar
, of hunting there. AS a citizen of Lon
don he will find himself in illustriou
, company. We do not clearly remembe
! whether the Shah and the Sultan ar,
both in the same case, though we thinl


they are. But Blucher and the Empero


Alexander, Thiers and the third Napo


leon, received this franchise, as he i
, about to receive it, as a compliment t,
, themselves and to their respective coun
}, tries, and great many British peer
, hold it by inheritance.