influence of the City of London. Demolish Gog and Magog, put down the
civic banquets, break up and melt down the weighty and many-linked
chains of solid gold round the neck of my lord mayor and the sheriffs,
strip off the aldermen's gowns, make a bonfire of the gilded
carriages, wring, if you will, the necks of both swans and cygnets.
It is all vanity and vexation. Man is an intellectual animal: he wants
none of these gewgaws. Alas! Wisdom may cry aloud in the streets, but
no one will heed her words if she speaks beyond his comprehension.
In theory, these Pecksniffs of retrenchment might possibly be correct
if mankind had attained the same degree of marble indifference with
themselves. In the mean time, while we are honest and true, it is good
to be merry and wise.

Passing lightly over the intervening reigns, we now arrive at that of
James I., who granted three very valuable charters to the Corporation
of London. The first alludes to the immemorial right of the mayor and
commonalty to the conservancy of the Thames, and to the metage of all
coals, grain, salt, fruit, vegetables, and other merchandise sold by
measure, delivered at the port of London. Of the exact nature of these
privileges and of their beneficial operation, so far as public
interests are concerned, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter,
merely premising in this place that they have been enjoyed "from time
whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." The second
charter, after confirming former liberties, enlarges the limits of the
civic jurisdiction and ordains that the mayor, recorder, and two
aldermen, shall be justices of oyer and terminer. The third one is
simply an amplification of the preceding two, and clears up various
doubts as to the weighing and measuring of coals: both offices are
granted or confirmed.