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The Court of Aldermen assembled on Wednesday. It was chiefly occupied with a motion of Sir Peter Laurie, declaring the inexpe- diency of agreeing to a report of a Committee of the Common Council, which recommended that the management of the dinner and ceremonies of the Lord Mayor's day should be taken out of the bands of the Lord Mayor, and be given to a Committee of the Common Council. Sir Peter feared that by such an arrangement the dignity of the Lord Mayor would suffer— He would not say that the Common Council Committee would, in their ma- nagement of the entertainment, be influenced by any peculiar views; but could anybody deny that they would act to the exclusion of every other power, and that the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, who hitherto had borne all the expense, and ought to have a very large share of the honour, would be mere subordinates in the pageant. Under the present system, the Lord Mayor appeared as the prin. cipal part of the illustrious company which assembled on the 9th of November ; but under the system which the report recommended, the Lord Mayor would nut be more than a degree higher than O'Toole, the toastmaster.
He wished things to remain exactly as they were— Alterations might if they pleased be made in the procession of the Lord Mayor ; but he could not think of giving up the state carriage until the Queen gave up her state carr;age and the Speaker of the House of Commons gave up his. The word ridiculous might be applied to the use of such appendages, but wh,..t symbol was there that might not come under that denomination? What was there half so ridiculous as a barrister's wig? '
Alderman Copeland spoke like a veritable descendant of Lord Mayor h itti ngton- With respect to the project of altering the procession, he was one of those who received pleasure from contributing to the delight of children ; and he remembered with what ecstacy he gazed himself when a boy at the very splendid manner in which the 9th of November always appeared to be invested in the city of Loudon. Ile beheld, too, during the procession of the day in which he entered upon office, how happy all the children within his view seemed to be ; and he could not help wishing that there should be no abatement of the glories of that day amongst his youthful fellow citizens.
Aldermen Farebrother, Cowen, and Venables, were unwilling to
• shear the 9th of November of its glories ; and Sir Peter Laurie's mo- tion was agreed to nem. con. [It really seems over-righteous to abolish the state-coach of the Lord 3layor, although we agree with the City Knight that it is as ridiculous
as a barrister's wig. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen are legitimate subjects for laughter and quizzing ; and there is such a tendency in these hard-working days to reduce every thing to matter-of-fact, and to curtail fun in all directions, that we hope the paraphernalia of the Lord Mayor's day may lcuig be spared to provoke an annual joke.]
The resolution was adopted in the Court of Common Council yesterday, after a sharp debate, without a division.
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