Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/291

 "Mr Henniker Heaton—You have heard from the Town Clerk the Resolution in which the Corporation of the City of London unanimously decided to enrol your name in the list of its Honorary Freemen.

"It becomes my pleasant duty, as Chamberlain of London, in the name of the Court, to offer you congratulations on those public services which have led the City to record you on what has been not inaptly called 'London's Roll of Fame,' which includes Kings, Princes, Statesmen, Patriots, Warriors, Explorers, Discoverers and Philanthropists. It is as a Philanthropist that we are privileged to greet and welcome you to-day.

"It will be interesting to you to be reminded that twenty years ago an exactly similar honour was bestowed by the Corporation on that great postal reformer Sir Rowland Hill, in acknowledgment of the social and commercial benefits the country had derived from the adoption in 1840 of his system of Uniform Penny Postage in the United Kingdom.

"And now, Mr Henniker Heaton, I have the honour and pleasure, in the name of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Common Councilmen of the City of London, whose action to-day will, I feel sure, be warmly endorsed by all classes of the community, not only here, but in India and the Colonies, to offer you the right hand of fellowship, as a Citizen of this great City, and to ask your acceptance of this gold casket containing the scroll of your Freedom, which I may remind you, and those who may follow you, of the respect and esteem entertained for you by this ancient Corporation for your distinguished public services as a Philanthropist and a Reformer."

The Freedom of the City of Canterbury was conferred upon H. H., and thus he became a Freeman of the Capital of the Empire, and also a Freeman of the ecclesiastical capital of the Empire. Q