1829. ] Affairs in General. . 297 
Lord Mayor Thompson, is a good fat fellow enough, with a good 
face, as the court ladies of the Easter ball say ; a good fortune, as is 
presumed in the heavy regions round the London Docks, and a good 
voice for haranguing that magnanimous concentration of practical wis- 
dom, a common council. But why the deuce does he always slide into 
the common stuff that has been talked for the last five hundred years by 
the common council understanding. We know, by precedent, what any one 
of those orators will say in the irregular succession of every five minutes of 
his blundering. There is in all the same eternal stuff about gratitude, 
and insufficiency, and awe, and determination to love, honor and obey the 
fat fellows wallowing in tureens of turtle soup, by the thousand, as far 
as the eye can reach through the smoke of the hecatomb fresh from the 
altars of Smithfield. Let us now hear my Lord Mayor :— 
““ The Lord Mayor returned thanks—He felt that the duties he had 
to perform were onerous and embarrassing, but he certainly never felt 
more difficulty than in giving utterance to his sentiments on this occa- 
sion, overwhelmed as he was by the kindness which he that day expe- 
rienced.—(Cheers.) The ward of Cheap was the cradle in which his 
young ambition was first rocked—he had acquired vigour and strength 
under the parental care of the honourable men by whom he was sur- 
rounded ; and if his heart did not beat with gratitude at this proof of 
the continuance of their affection, he must be destitute of the feelings 
which they must have thought he was influenced by when they raised 
him to the elevation he had at present attained.—(Loud cheers.)” 
What can be finer than all this—The most exquisite flummery ever 
administered by the spoon of city gratitude? ‘ Ambition rocked in a 
cradle,” and that cradle Eastcheap. “ Cheap ambition,” says one wag, 
“ambition founded on a rock,” says another. “ Ambition rocked by a 
ward. The man himself, instead of the nurse, should have been the 
ward, until he came to years of discretion,” says a third. A fourth, and 
the kindest of all, with a sigh over an orator nipped in the bud, says, 
** Lord Mayor Thompson, be an orator no more!” 
The Pantomimes.—“< The whole of these annual entertainments have 
been very successful this season. The following is an estimate of the 
expences attending each of the pantomimes, both at the major and minor 
establishments :— 
Drury Lane, about m= - £1,870 
Covent Garden a ~ 2 - 1,426 
The Adelphi 4 - E - 500 
The Surrey - - . - - 600 
The Cobourg = = = - 400 
The Pavilion = a a - 100 
The Olympic = 80 
Making an aggregate of 4,976l. for providing enjoyment for the holida 
folks. Sadler’s Wells is not Gheluded in thre above sum, as that aie 
blishment (contrary to its practice from time immemorial) produced no 
+ pantomimic Christmas entertainment.” 
We wish the Harlequins and Columbines well ; they are good subjects, 
and never fail to do their duty. Of tragedies we are desperately tired, 
and of French farces desperately sick : there is not marrow enough in a 
ole theatre of them to furnish any thing beyond a professor of the 
M.M. New Series.—Vou.VII. No. 32. 2Q 
