Alderman Rose has been for a year Lord Mayor of
London ; but even that proud position, which Frenchmen think almost regal, has left him a disappointed man. He wanted to be a baronet, and as he and the City entertained the Princess, he expected to be made one in reward. As the year drew on, however, he seems to have thought that the debtor was forgetting the debt, and in City fashion at last sent in his bill. He actually wrote to the Premier, " at the expense of some violence to his feelings," asking why no honour had been bestowed on the Chief Magistrate of the City? Lord Palmerston, of course, in reply blandly quoted precedents,— which are about half one way and half the other,—but declined the application, and poor Mr. Rose is left to blush unseen. The City may have a grievance against the Premier, and in the case of Mr. Cubitt, we think, it had one, but a formal demand of honours iu payment for entertainments is simply an impertinent interference with the prerogative. It is services of valour, not of china, for which the Queen gives decorations.
