THE SPEECH Of the Right Honourable Sir John Moore, Knight, AT GUILD-HALL,
Septemb. 29
th. 1681. When He was ELECTED
Lord-Mayor of London.
Together, with some Passages of his Deportment on the Twenty-Fourth
of June, 1682.
and before, in Relation to the Election of Sheriffs
for the said City, and County of Middlesex.
I Give you all my hearty thanks for the great Honour you have done me this Day, in chusing me your chief Magistrate for the Year ensuing.
It is a very great Trust you have reposed in me, and a high and Honourable Employment to which you have called me. It shall be my great Care, to the uttermost of my Power, with God's Blessing, and your Assistance, to discharge it faithfully. It is a Work I never did, and requires that Strength I never had, which I hope the Lord will grant me. God by you hath called me to it, and I trust will carry me through it.
Magistracy is an Ordinance set up by Divine Authority▪ and Government is appointed for the Good of Mankind, to keep the World in Order, to which is due great Reverence and Obedience: I wish all Men did their Duty.
I am sorry to hear and see such great Divisions amongst us; certainly they are in a great Error that are Promoters of them. It's the Design of Rome to divide us; it will be the Wisdom of Protestants to prevent and disappoint them, by living together as Brethren in Ʋnity amongst themselves. And my Request to you all is, to exercise Christian Charity; to forbear Reproaching and Backbiting one another; to study Quietness among your selves; to discourage Sin and Wickedness; to promote Piety and Godliness: which will bring Glory to God, Honour to the King and His Government, Peace, Happiness and Prosperity to this City; which God Almighty grant; and let all the People say, Amen.
His Deportment about the Election of Sheriffs.
AT the Bridge-House-Feast, the Eighteenth day of May, 1682, His Lordship was pleased to Drink to Mr. Dudley North; which Ceremony of the Lord [Page 2] Mayors Drinking to a Man at that time, though it be generally taken to signify no more than that such a Man is put in Nomination, or is judged fit by the Lord Mayor to be One of the Sheriffs, in Case he be Elected by the Common-Hall; yet some time before the Day of Election, his Lord and Court of Aldermen, took Mr. North's Bond to Hold Sheriff, meerly upon His Lordships having Drunk to him, as aforesaid. And accordingly, in Order to the Constituting of him Sheriff, His Lordship was pleased the Nineteenth Day of June, 1682, to issue his Precept to the several Companies in the unaccustomed form following:
THese are to require you, That on Midsummer-day next, being the Day appointed, as well for Confirmation of the Person, who hath been by Me Chosen, according to the Antient Custom, and Constitution of this City; to be One of the Sheriffs of this City, and County of Middlesex, for the Year ensuing; as for the Election of the Other of the said Sheriffs, and other Officers: You cause the Livery of Your Company, to Meet together at Your Common-Hall, early in the Morning; and from thence, to come together Decently and Orderly, in their Gowns, to Guild-Hall, there to Make the said Confirmation and Election.
On Midsummer-day, Mr. North, Papillion, Dubois, and Box, being named as Candidates for the Election, upon View of the Hands, the Election was declared to fall upon Papillion, and Dubois; who were judged to have the Majority of Hands by a Thousand, or Twelve Hundred. Whereupon Mr. North's, and Mr. Box's Friends demanding a Poll, it was granted. But they finding that the Poll was likely to be carried for Papillion and Dubois, some of them went to the Lord Mayor, and by false Suggestions, prevailed with him to go the Council-Chamber; and, being there, he sent for the Sheriffs to attend Him: but they desiring his Lordship's Excuse till the Poll was over, he went to the Polling-place, and seemed to forbid any further Proceeding in the Poll: And though they gave him Reasons, why they ought to proceed in the Poll, (being then, as they said, in the Legal Discharge of their Office) yet his Lordship not being satisfied there-with, and they con [...]nuing to Poll; He, with a few Aldermen, went to the Hastings about Seven [...]n the Evening, (while the Sheriffs wer [...] Polling in the Yard) and th [...] Common Crier, by his Lordship's Direction, spoke to the Promiscuous Company in the Hall, to the Effect following, All you that were Summoned to appear here this Day, are required to depart; and to give your Attendance on Tuesday, at Nine of the Clock in the Morning. As soon as the Cryer had said thus, his Lordship, and the Aldermen rose, and went away.
Now, though I am confident his Lordship is not ignorant, that many Persons have severely reflected on the New Tenour of his Precept aforesaid, and his insisting on his Right of Chusing One of the Sheriffs, contrary to the generally received Opinion, grounded (as they tell us) on the known Laws, undoubted Privileges, and uninterrupted Customs, and Usages of the City; which impowers the Commoners to Chuse Two Sheriffs; adding, That this is their Right by Prescription, as well as Charter. And though they further reflect on Him, for Adjourning the Court the Twenty-Fourth of June last, and for pretending a Right in managing the Poll, which (they say) belongs solely to the Sheriffs, and that his Lordship knows it to be so; with much more to this purpose: Yet, for my part, I shall neither mention any of his Lordship's Proceedings, since the Twenty-Fourth of June; nor determine how far his Speech and Actions aforesaid, do agree, or differ; but shall leave that entirely to the Consideration of his Lordship, and the Impartial Readers.
The Speech is Printed from that Copy of it, Published by Jonathan Robinson; and the Account of those Passages referring to the Election of Sheriffs, is Extracted out of a Paper Published by L. Curtis.
LONDON, Printed for R. Read, 1682.