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    GUY FAUX AND THE LORD MAYOR.

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    . HOW TO DIMINISH OUK ANNUAL EXPENDITUKE

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    others want , whether labour , or food , or any other commodity ? It is absurd to object that mischief will thereby accrue to those ¦ who do this ; because , in the first place , mischief will not necessarily accrue to those doing it ; and , in the next place , if it were true , it would still be logically consistent with the fundamental principles of the system ; so that when it is true all it does is to bring the . system to a reductio ad absurdum . When the party who " strikes " for higher prices or shorter working hours is unable to hold out , and finds his place supplied by other competitors , and himself left destitute , no doubt he does himself harm : but if he has the best of it and carries

    his point , then he manifestly gains by enforcing a combination price . And so when a monopolist has bought up some commodity which he is thus able to sell at a price that makes his fortune at once , it would be as difficult to show how he was injured by this , as it would to show that , in making the article scarce , he was not acting in perfect consistency with what the political economists tell us about buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest . Let the present system be logically , fairly , consistently carried out ; it will soon be brought to a dead lock , and proved unworkable , and a better will be introduced and established .

    At Kochdale , Mr . Bright has before his eyes an example of the mutual assurance principle practically and successfully at work in a coadjutive mercantile enterprise , embracing several trades : What is to prevent the application and extension of this principle to an enterprise of any magnitude ? To one whole trade throughout the entire country ? Nay , to all the trade of the country ? In a word , to the whole community ? The larger the scale on "which it was worked the greater would be the economy of labour , and the larger the emoluments attending it . AVhile each member of the community would feel the interest of a partner ; so that there would be the maximum of inducement and reward for the minimum of toil , instead of , as at present , the minimum of inducement and reward , for the maximum of labour and exertion .

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    nr ^ HE negroe ' s criticism upon Caesar and . Fompjey will -L apply very -well to the personages whose names stand at the head of this article , Guy Faux and the Lord Mayor are very much alike , especially the Lobd Mayor . Their anniversaries come 60 close to each other in . the month , of November , that we have the best opportunity of instituting a comparison between them , and of forming a judgment as to their respective merits . Guy comes forth on his barrel on the 5 th , ray Lobd Ma yob follows , in his grand state coach , on the 9 th . The interval is so short that one may be said to have both disjjlays in his eye at once . We

    are not going to ridicule old customs , or sneer at pompous ceremonials . ? They are things to be reverenced . Do we not all of us observe customs and ceremonials . Has not every social circle its grand festival day , when there is a better dinner than usual ; when the girls have new frocks and the boys new jackets , and a good deal of money is thrown away , just because it is the family festival day , and for no other earthly reason . Don ' t sneer at the Lord Mayor ' s Show ,

    Mr . Jones , for y ou have an annual Lord Mayor ' s Show of your own on your natal day , -when you give that grand dinner party , and burn wax candles , and have the greengrocer to wait , dressed up to resemble , not a man in urmour , but a family butler . You have the pomp and circumstance of a quantity of plate , which you borrow for the day , as the great civic Jones borrows his suits of armourjund his creamcoloured chargers . Lot him . who is without a Show of his own cast the first stone at the JLoivd Mayor .

    No : we are not going to complain of the Lord Mayor ' s Show as a show , and as a symbol of city privileges . We might as well complain of the Qujgen ' s Procession to Parliament—indeed , the royal and the civio state coach are also very much alike—or of tho innocent lark in which the charity children indulge , of beating parish bounds . Wo complain of tho Show because it is a bad show , a tawdry show , an . undignified show , a mean , vulgar , " crapulous " show—jv show , in faot , altogether unworthy of tho ooension of the ago , and tho ancient splendour of tho City . The bhow was all this on the late Ninth , notwithstanding that Lord Mayor Cubitt made an effort to revive tho glories of Sir Wooi-stonk Dixus , whoso show displayed a pageant in whioh all tho ends of the earth were represented in allegorioal figures , attended by several nymphs , among whom was— - "Tho pleasant Thames , a sweofc and dainty onoj " together with Magnanimity , Loyalty , the Country { tho

    Soldier , the Sailor ; Arts , Commerce , and the Old Nobilifte , allled by a Moor , mounted on a lazarn . The effort , we must say , was a feeble one , for the only scrap of ancient splendour to be discovered was a dozen Unhappy beings in armour , set astride the same number of Astley's cream-coloured hacks , looking for all the world like a row of animated pairs of tongs . You could not help it ; the mind wandered insensibly to the Fifth ; and you expected every minute to hear the fizzing of a squib or the banging of a cracker . Why did not the watermen wear masks , and the City Marshal sing , " Please to remember ; " and the Lord Mayor , or at least the gentleman , with his head in a muff , have a short pipe in his mouth ?

    We will not , however , lay all the blame of this ragged display upon the Lord Mayor .. He was not responsible for the long row of dirty , ramshackle nys—they do not deserve the name of carriages—which preceded the state coach . There were at least twenty of those vehicles , their panels covered with dust and dirt ; the horses , mere knackers , ungreomed , broken-knee'd , and apparently broken-hearted . The coachmen , in most casts , were worthy of the cattle they drove ; and seem to have been selected on the principle , that he who drives broken-down horses should himself be broken down . No night cab would present a more miserable and wretched appearance than did these city

    clarences . No night-cabman could look more dingy and dirty than did those city coachmen . The owners of these vehicles were evidently city dignitaries , for you saw them sitting inside , arrayed in gowns and cocked hats , and looking every bit as important as the Lord Mayor himself . But , nevertheless , we emphatically say , they ought to be ashamed of themselves . If we were Lord Mayor we should decidedly refuse to march through Coventry with such a squad . We Londoners of course , know very well that those dignitaries in gowns and cocked-hats are merchant princes , who might ride in coaches of gold if they chose ; but what will the intelligent foreigner think ? If we are all proud of the Corporation of the City of London , as Lord Palmerston , and every other minister who

    dines at Guildhall , says we are , we must naturally be jealous for the Corporation ' s dignity . We make some sacrifices { for this show . Throughout the whole route , from Guildhall to Westminster , we are content to suffer a total suspension of business for the greater part of the day ; we give up the various thoroughfares to the procession , and submit to be driven into back streets ; we yield ourselves to an uncontrolled street mob , and meekly endure robbery and ill-usage . In fact , we pay our money , and have a right to our money ' s worth in return If the Lord Mayor is simply to be made a Guy of like the hero of the Fifth / the sooner the venerable ceremony is discontinued altogether the better . At present it is typical of nothing but tawdry shabbiness , exciting only ridicule and disgustand provoking simply derision and laughter .

    , We see no reason whatever why the Lord Mayor ' s procession should be subject to this reproach . It might , we think very easily be invested both with dignity and interest . The carriages of the sheriffs are unexceptionable—the £ , ord Mayor ' s state-coach is at least as dignified a vehicle as the state-coach of the Queen , and the procession of the watermen-if the men were better dressed-is perfectly app ropriate ; leather and prunellafhe

    but all the rest is second-hand , men in armour are grossly ridiculous , and the row of dirty clarence " no * tlvely offensive . Why not substitute representatives of the various city companies with their banners and badges . We should then have something like a symbohcal representation of the commercial constitution of the City of London . One might then read the story of the City a wealth and greatness as the procession pasaed by ; while there would ue afways a sufficient element of fun ia the old gentleman in the muffhat who pokes the sword out of the window of the

    The City may depend upon it that the public will not stand the show much longer , if it it . simply to be a repetition of the festival of Guy Faux . The inconvenience of a whole day of blockade in the principal thoroughfares of the s-: E 5 rt ? fHl = ili value , tho public will suffer any ™ ° " ™ l ™ ceremony pleasure , but they will not long toJeruio u j which has neither moaning nor dignity .

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    f VJB national expenditure j ^ ffilf ^^ SSK

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    £ fov . 17 , 1860 J The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 941

    Guy Faux And The Lord Mayor.

    GUY FAUX AND THE LORD MAYOR .

    . How To Diminish Ouk Annual Expendituke

    Ito ,, ow to DIMINISH OUB ANN UAL EXPENDITURE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1860, page 941, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2374/page/5/