142
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. VIIL AUG. 24, 1907.
of gallantry." John Foster, however, says
it was intended for Prince Boothby. Serjeant
Whittaker was ridiculed as Serjeant Circuit.
14. ' Maid of Bath,' Haymarket, 26 June, 1771. Mr. Flint=Walter Long. Major Racket = Capt. Matthews. Miss Linnet= Eliz. Linley, afterwards Mrs. Sheridan. Home Tooke was ridiculed in this play.
15. ' The Nabob,' Haymarket, 29 June, 1772. Sir Matthew Mite=General Richard Smith. Walpole tells us that Dr. Milles and the Society of Antiquaries were " lashed very deservedly " in this comedy.
16. ' The Bankrupt,' Haymarket, 21 July, 1773. In spite of the disavowals of the management, it was believed that Alex- ander Fordyce, the banker, was " the original " of Sir Robert Riscounter. During the previous year there had been many bank failures.
17. ' The Cozeners,' Haymarket, July, 1774. Mrs. Fleece 'em= Harriet Grieve. Mrs. Simony = Mrs. William Dodd. After- wards the notorious Mrs. Rudd was ridi- culed.
18. 'A Trip to Calais.' Prohibited in 1775. Lady Kitty Crocodile = Eliz. Chud- leigh, Duchess of Kingston. Lord Hertford, the Lord Chamberlain, refused to grant a licence for this play.
19. ' The Capuchin,' Haymarket, 17 Aug., 1776. Dr. Viper = Rev. William Jackson.
HORACE BLEACKXEY. Fox Oak, Hersham.
JUBILEE OF 'THE CITY PRESS.'
(See ante, pp. 81, 103, 122.)
ONE grant made by the Corporation in 1874 caused some fault-finding, not among the donors, but among the receivers. The members of the Congregational Church meeting in the Poultry determined to sell the site of their old chapel, known as Poultry Chapel, and obtained for it fifty thousand pounds. Half of this amount was devoted to the purchase from the Corporation of the site on the Holborn Viaduct upon which the City Temple now stands, and the Corporation, to show their goodwill, voted the sum of three hundred guineas in order that the pulpit might be a present from the City. This handsome gift came as a pleasant surprise to the then minister, Dr. Parker, who first saw an intimation of it in the newspapers. Strange to say, no sooner did this kindly act become known than a regular storm was raised, and many Nonconformists solemnly asserted " that to accept money from a corporation was a violation of the funda-
mental principles of nonconformity, and a
denial of the spirituality of the Kingdom of
Heaven." The controversy in the deno-
minational papers lasted for weeks, and an
uninformed reader would " have been led
to believe that the entire fabric of the
Christian Church was in danger." Dr.
Parker described it as the pettiest " of all
the petty controversies in which I have
been called upon to take part " (' Life of
Dr. Parker,' by William Adamson, D.D.).
Apart from official grants, charitable and provident institutions have always received most valuable support from members of the Corporation. Newsvendors and printers have special cause for gratitude in this respect. With the Newsvendors' Institu- tion the City fathers have been associated since its foundation in 1839, when Alderman Harmer became its first president, and from that time the City has frequently been represented at its anniversaries, and at the forthcoming festival the Lord Mayor, Sir William Treloar, will preside. The Printers" Pension Corporation, founded in 1827, has always received strong City sup- port, and on ten occasions has had at its festivals the Lord Mayor in the chair. At its festival in 1831 Sir John Key presided. It will be remembered what trouble he got into about the- usual Lord Mayor's banquet, at which the King was to be present. Getting alarmed at the fear of riots, he wrote to the Duk& of Wellington to warn him that an attempt was to be made upon his person on the- occasion of the King's visit. The Duke on this declined to attend, and the King was advised also to refuse, which he did,, much against his will, as he had already determined in his own mind to bring the Duke and Peel back in his own carriage. The effect of the Lord Mayor's letter was that
"the Funds fell three per cent.; the banquet was abandoned. Soldiers were brought into the City, and the ditch of the Tower filled with water. It was found that the panic was an exaggeration, and that the Ministry had blundered." 'The Life and Times of William IV.,' by Percy Fitzgerald.
Through the courtesy of the Remem- brancer, Adrian Donald Wilde Pollock,. Esq., I have received a copy of the Report to the Court of Aldermen from the com- mittee of the whole Court in relation to privileges at the Coronation celebration in 1902. The Report contains historical notes,, beginning with the Charter of King John (9th of May, 1215). The citizens or "barons " of the City of London were permitted to
