Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/324

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254

��NOTES BY THE WAY.

��Newsvendors j and printers institutions.

��Dr. Parker, 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 institu- tions 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' Institution 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 festival on October 22nd, 1907, the Lord Mayor, Sir William Treloar, presided. The Printers' Pension Corporation, founded in 1827, has always received strong City support, and on ten occasions has had at its festivals the Lord Mayor in the chair. Sir John Key At its festival in 1831 Sir John Key presided. It will be remembered and the Duke what trouble he got into about the usual Lord Mayor's banquet, of Wellington a ^ w hi c h the King was to be present. Getting alarmed at the fear of riots, he wrote to the Duke 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 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 Fitz- gerald.

Through the courtesy of the Remembrancer, Adrian Donald Wilde Pollock, Esq., I have received a copy of the Report to the Court of Aldermen from the committee 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 choose annually whom they would to be their Mayor, subject to the proviso that he should be presented to the King, or, in the King's absence, to his Justiciar, and sworn to be faithful to the Crown.

Charter of The like grant was made by charter of Henry III., dated

Henry III. February 18th, 1226/7 ; whilst by a later charter of the same king, dated June 12th, 1253, it was provided, in the event of the king being absent from Westminster, that the Mayor elect should be presented to the Barons of the Exchequer, and by them be ad- mitted (only), " but so, nevertheless, that at the next coming of the King or his heirs to Westminster or London, he should be again

��Report on Coronation privileges.

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