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Council. There is no bigger thing in the world of its kind than the Corporation of London. It is the apotheosis of democratic self-government, with its councillors annually elected and its magistrates elected by the ratepayers. It is a great institution, with a fine history and exalted ideals of service and patriotism.

The successive steps taken by a man in public city life as he progresses in business, in wardmote, in council, and in committee-capacity for leadership, suffrages given at the hustings, election to the mayoralty-end at last in the triumph of popular self-government. The Lord Mayor is to all intents and purposes unanimously chosen by and is given. the full confidence of the livery. The attempts that have sometimes been made to discredit the value of the Corporation of London have failed, because their advocates did not comprehend these facts. I can, however, make the assertion that the City will always be able to defend itself on the score not only of its widely known public spirit, but of its essentially democratic constitution-a point plainly put that challenges confidently the fullest investigation.

So we can understand the bearings of John Wilkes's connection with the City. Six hundred years of municipal liberty and dignity, based upon the traditions of our Saxon ancestry, had made the Corporation of London an example of unrivalled stability. It passed through the trials of a difficult period, strengthened through the ordeal it had to undergo.

The historians tell us, with some complacency, how often its stalwart citizens had resisted tyranny and kept secure the foundations of popular liberty. Foreigners have seen its great worth, and sometimes perhaps exaggerated its powers. Still now, after

A PERSONAL NOTE

xiii

the lapse of another century and a half, the pageant of London goes on, and we are every year prouder and prouder of our civic record, and impelled through the example set to try to live up to the public virtues of our predecessors.

There is a saying full of meaning, "No man is a hero to his valet." It may be allowed that a Lord Mayor is not always a hero to his brotheraldermen; and certainly it must be conceded that they are his severest critics. It must, however, also be said to their credit that they do not criticise him in public.

The fact is that there are some people who are very ready to criticise their friends of to-day, and to compare them unfavourably with men who occupied similar positions in former years. Thus Mr. W. F. Rae, writing in 1874', draws a comparison between the aldermen of 1750 and 1874.

A century ago... the Chief Magistrate of the City was not necessarily a man who had passed through certain minor offices, and who rose by routine to fill the highest ... Wealthy merchants and bankers concerned themselves in municipal elections, and gladly filled municipal offices... A respectable tradesman is often ambitious of becoming Lord Mayor, in view of the possibility that during his year of office some happy accident may lead to his being knighted or made a baronet. When Wilkes became Lord Mayor, every one felt that he had attained a dignity which was a real distinction.

The Corporation at that time (1774) was a political body. It is not so now. To say that the aldermen of that time were men of higher or better position than they are now is not correct, as may be proved if necessary.

The fact is that 150 years ago political opinions

1 Wilkes, Sheridan, Fox. By W. F. Rae. 1874, p. 100.

or votes decided all municipal elections in the City of London. Wilkes himself was elected because he opposed the Government and was persecuted by Ministers, and most of the aldermen then were elected on political grounds. To say that such men were chosen because they were "wealthy merchants and bankers" is incorrect, and to speak of the decadence of the aldermen of to-day is not justifiable.

I might head this Preliminary with the words which are to be seen over the door of the Aldermen's Court Room, Audi alteram Partem, or "Hear the other side."

I especially make that appeal in considering the following account of the character and career of the extraordinary public man, Member of Parliament, and chief and servant of the City Corporation who is the subject of this book.

W. P. T.

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