PREPARATIONS FOR THE GRAND CIVIC ENTERTAINMENT.— (From the Times.)—The throne
is nearly complete, [and the drapery round it gives the most exquisite relief to the dazzling splendour of the crown which stands above. The hustings' walls are covered with enor- mous pier glasses. The walls at the bottom of the hail are also covered with pier glasses. At the Royal table, none but the Royal Family will be seated : they are, besides the ping and Queen, His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George of Cambridge, His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland and Prince George of Cumberland, His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria, their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Her ioyal Highness the Princess Augusta, and the Princess Carolath. This table will be loaded with gold and silver plate. An estimate of the quantity of plate used upon the occasion may be made from the fact that 20,000 ounces of silver (forks and spoons alone) will be seen. upon the tables. The King's withdrawing-room is a small room, but it is difficult so imagine anything more beautiful than the manner in which it is laid out. Alderman Copeland has supplied a pair of chandeliers of a new and most costly description, which are to be sent off to India immediately after the feast. The walls of the room are hung with Gobelin tapestry. The reading-room of the members of the Corporation is to be converted into a withdrawing-room for Her Majesty. The following is a correct Statement of the order of procession—The Lord Mayor will set out from . the Mansion-house at nine olclock in the morning. The procession will go through Cornitill, Leadenhall Street, Billiter Street, Fenchurch Street, Lombard Street, the Poultry, Cheapside, St. Paul's Churchyard, Lud- gate Hill, and on to Blackfriars Bridge, where the Lord Mayor will enter the barge. At Westminster, his Lordship's procession will be joined by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. It is expected that the procession will leave the Courts at half-past eleven o'clock. The Lord Mayor and the Lord Mayor of Dublin will then proceed through Parliament Street, Charing Cross, and the Strand, to the Guildhall. Their Majesties will leave St James's at three o'clock. Four Royal carriages will precede the Royal carriage, which will convey the King and Queen. There will be some dancing in the drawing-room, but not in the hall. A scaffolding has been erected at the city side of Temple-bar, to furnish it with illuminations and devices. Several houses in Fleet Street, and Cheapside, have al- ready put up the frames for the variegated lamps they intend exhibiting on the occasion. A scaffolding, to accommodate spectators, has been erected at the east end of St. Paul's Cathedral, opposite the school ; it will be most splendidly lighted up along its whole front. MERCHANT TAILORS' ComrANv.—A meeting of the Liverymen of this Company took place on Tuesday, for the purpose of receiving the report of the deputation appointed to wait on the Masters and Wardens, It was unsatisfactory. The functionaries refused to give the deputation any information about the Company. Mr. C. Fox Smith, who addressed the meeting at some length, said, that the foundation of every societywas the good of the whole ; but a principle diametrically opposite to this had been acted upon iu the Merchant Tailors' Company. The original ob- ject of the funds of the Company was for the relief of those poor brethren who had fallen into decay ; and under that impression large sums had been left to the Company by benevolent individuals. But what was the fact ? Out of an income amounting to nearly 80,0001. per annum, only . 201. a-year was appropriated for the relief of decayed Liverymen ; the remainder being spent in feasting the select and self-elected junta by whom the affairs of the Company were governed. After stating that the deputation appointed to obtain information respecting the affairs of the Company had met with nothing but evasion, and an evident desire to mystify, Mr. Smith concluded his address by moving a resolution, to the effect that the present mode of electing the Master and Wardens was not only unjust and irregular, but totally at variance with the spirit of the Company's charter, as was also the mode in which the revenues were clissipated." The resolution was carried unanimously. 1
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