THE LORD MAYOR’S DAY

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1014, 20 December 1881, Page 4

THE LORD MAYOR’S DAY

The Lord Mayor’s Day was celebrated as customary, at London, on the 9th November, with procession and a banquet at Guildhall. To rhe general public the annual show was somewhat disappointing. There were neither men in armour, nor Indian elephants, nor ballet girls in costume representing allegorical pictures. This lime, in fact, all the glories of the past, except the gilded coach and evergreen Sir John Bennett, had disappeared. Th e authorities of the Tower had refused to issue any suits of armour for use in the Lord Mavor’s pageant, because on the last occasion the gallant knights, having partaken too freely of the flowing bowl, left their armour out all night in the open air, and, it being a rainy night, the valuable suits were returned with a thick coat of rust. So the Lord Mayor elect, being in a dilemma as to where to procure a striking novelty for the show, hit upon a brilliant idea for a Lord Mayor—namely, that of carrying the American flag in procession as a response to the greeting at the British standard at Yorktown. The speeches at the Guildhall banquet, particularly that of the Prime Minister, were of a somewhat commonplace description, and rather disappointing in character. The principal members of the Government present were Mr Gladstone, Earl Granville. Lord Hartington, Mr Forster, and Mr Fawcett, with a host of minorlights. Both Mr Bright and Mr Chamberlain were absent, and so was Sir William Harcourt. Neither the Lord Chancellor nor the Lord Chief Justice put iu an appearance, and the

foreign legations were represented simply by the Danish and Chinese Ministers and the Greek Charge d’Affaires. The company, therefore, was hardly up to the average, lhere was the usual procession from the library to the banquetting hall. Mr Gladstone, who had kept the company waiting for the best part of an hour, took in the Lady Mayoress. He was preceded by the Lord Mayor with Mrs Gladstone. It was a quarter to 10 when the Prime Minister rose to respond to the toast of “ Her Majesty s Ministers.” He was very well received, but the cheers which greeted him could hardly be called enthusiastic, although a well-known Conservative of the city so far relaxed as to do decent honor to the toast. Mr Gladstone spoke just twenty-eight minutes. He looked remarkably well in his Windsor uniform, and his voice was as strong and fesonant as ever.