Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/325

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��presented to the King or his heirs, and admitted as Mayor." For the last 150 years the practice has been to inform the Lord Chan- cellor of the election of a new Lord Mayor.

The City " in the King's hand " is also the subject of notes :

" Under the Plantagenets the City was oftentimes, and for little or no justifiable cause, taken ' into the King's hand,' which meant that the City was to be governed by nominees of the King instead of by a Mayor and Sheriffs of the City's own choice."

In 1239 this happened because the City refused to admit to office a nominee of the King for the Shrievalty, and the City remained without a Mayor until the 13th of the following January. In 1243, 1244, 1247, 1249, and 1257 the same thing occurred for short periods ; but the longest time that the City ever remained in the King's hand was thirteen years, viz., from 1285 to 1298. During this time it was governed by a Custos or Warden and two Bailiffs, appointed by the King, in the place of a Mayor and Sheriffs elected by the citizens.

A full description of the Crystal Sceptre is given from Jewitt and St. John Hope's ' Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office,' ii. 94-6. Of its age or history nothing is known, and it is possible that the shaft may date from Saxon times. It is used only on such occa- sions as a coronation, when it is carried by the Lord Mayor, and at the annual election of the chief magistrate of the City, when it is formally handed to the newly elected Lord Mayor by the Chamberlain.

In reference to the proceedings of " The Court of Claims " with respect to the presence of the Lord Mayor at the Coronation, an extract is given from the Times report of the 15th of January, 1902. The Recorder quoted from various charters, and mentioned among others the case of Henry VIII. on June 24th, 1509, when the " Mayor of London, having the mace on the left hand, was in immediate proximity to the Earl of Essex, the Great Chamberlain, and the Earl Marshal." In fact, a place was assigned to the Lord Mayor at every Coronation, until that of George IV. inclusive. For some reason or other he was omitted from the last two Corona- tions. " But," contended the Recorder,

" the omission of the Lord Mayor on those two occasions did not curtail a right which had been exercised, without other intermission, for certainly more than 400 years probably a far longer time. The Lord Mayor in those early days represented the commons of England, in times long before the existence of a Speaker of the House of Commons. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal were fully represented, but for centuries there was no other appearance for the people at large than that of the Lord Mayor,"

��" In the King's hand."

��The Crystal Sceptre.

��The Court of Claims.

��Henry VIII.

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