Stranica 133 [133]
OCR
THE CITY GOVERNMENT (ii of companies who are freemen of the city. When assembled in their ‘common hall” they perform certain duties which must originally have belonged to the whole body of the citizens, and nominate two aldermen every year for the office of Lord Mayor, one of the two being chosen by the court of aldermen. It would be possible to prolong this chapter considerably by tracing the history of all the subordinate members of the Lord Mayor's staff; but I have said enough, I think, to show that, whether the corporation had a Roman origin or not, it is easier and safer to derive it from the ordinary constitution of an Anglo-Saxon shire, and until some direct proof has been adduced to the contrary, we shall hardly go wrong in accepting a derivation which accounts for all the facts of the case in an easy and natural manner. Of the grants to the citizens of the county of Middlesex and the village of Southwark, I have spoken elsewhere. London has been lately deprived of Middlesex, but still holds Southwark, as Bridge Ward Without. Two or three questions are often asked as to the position and title of the Lord Mayor, and very absurd answers are sometimes given to them. Without adducing authorities we may briefly say that the "Lord Mayor has been a " Lord” ever since such a title has been in use: that he is a judge, and is included in the royal
