The new Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas White, a
con- siderable wine merchant, was installed as usual on the 9th November ; and as usual, Mr. Sanger, the circus-keeper, was em- ployed to improve the annual pageant. He showed thirteen ele- phants, one big one, several little ones, and a good many babies, and was therefore enthusiastically cheered by the populace, who ad- mire that kind of thing very much. Next year let us hope the Lord Mayor will hire Wombwell also, or his successor, whoever he is, and let us have a whole menagerie. A lion or two walking up the Strand would excite interest, especially among horses. We have no wish to see an old pageant abolished, but Sir Thomas White, who speaks well, and has opened a book or two in his life, might have given London something better than this. He should have revived the pageant of his namesake who was mayor, it is said, three centuries ago ; or if a river procession is impossible, have given the people a military spectacle of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. A travelling circus is not a pageant creditable to the inventiveness of the City.
