252
��NOTES BY THE WAt.
��Not a
Privy
Councillor.
��Lord Mayor Hunter.
��Change in
date of the
Show.
��Precedence
of members
for the City
in the House
of Commons.
��Lord Mayor's Laureate.
��Removal of Temple Bar.
��That the Lord Mayor is not a Privy Councillor was, after a somewhat warm discussion, settled on the 18th of February, 1854. The Lord Mayor is summoned (as are the Sheriffs, Aldermen, and a number of other notabilities, not Privy Councillors) to attend a meeting on the demise of the crown for proclaiming the new sovereign ; and it is mentioned that in The London Gazette of the 20th of June, 1837, the names of the Privy Councillors are given in one list, to the number of 83, and in another list the names of the persons attending the meeting to the number of above 150, amongst whom are the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen, Common Serjeant, City Solicitor, &c. Two of the contributors on the subject had been among those summoned, although not members of the Privy Council.
We have not had many Lord Mayors proud of their horse- manship, but D. S. states on the 8th of December, 1855, that Sir Claudius Stephen Hunter, who was Lord Mayor in 1811, was to be seen every day displaying himself to his civic subjects, gracefully disporting on a white horse. He was made the subject of the follow- ing epigram :
HTJNTER, MAYOR. An Emp'ror of Rome, who was famous for whim,
A consul his horse did declare : The City of London, to imitate him, Of a Hunter have made a Lord Mayor.
In reference to the change in the date of the Lord Mayor's Show Mr. Robert Pierpoint, in a very interesting article on ' The Birthday of George III. : Old v. New Style,' which appeared on the 26th of August, 1905, quotes Toone's ' Chronological Historian ' as his authority for saying that whereas before 1752 the Lord Mayors of London were sworn in at Westminster on the 29th of October, they were in 1752 and afterwards sworn in on the 9th of November.
The precedence of members for the City in the House of Commons is referred to on the 14th of March, 1857, by J. G. Morten, and the Editor quotes from May's ' Law and Practice of Parlia- ment ' :
" ' On the opening of a new Parliament, the members for the city of London claim the privilege of sitting on the Treasury or Privy Councillors' bench.' And in a note Mr. May adds : ' In 1628 a question was raised, whether the members for the city of London were " Knights " ; but there appears to have been no decision.' "
On September 7th, 1867, Mr. Jephson Huband Smith gives the names of some who have held the ofnceof Lord Mayor's Laureate.
The removal of Temple Bar is the subject of a note on the 12th of January, 1878 ; and vanishing London forms the subject for many a later note, as may be seen in the General Index to the Ninth Series.
�� �
