ring. There
were likewise two very imposing figures, whom I should have taken to be
military men of rank, being arrayed in scarlet coats and large silver
epaulets; but they turned out to be officers of the Lord-Mayor's
household, and were now employed in assigning to the guests the places
which they were respectively to occupy at the dinner-table. Our names
(for I had included myself in a little group of friends) were announced;
and ascending the staircase, we met his Lordship in the door-way of the
first reception-room, where, also, we had the advantage of a
presentation to the Lady-Mayoress. As this distinguished couple retired
into private life at the termination of their year of office, it is
inadmissible to make any remarks, critical or laudatory, on the manners
and bearing of two personages suddenly emerging from a position of
respectable mediocrity into one of preeminent dignity within their own
sphere. Such individuals almost always seem to grow nearly or quite to
the full size of their office. If it were desirable to write an essay on
the latent aptitude of ordinary people for grandeur, we have an
exemplification in our own country, and on a scale incomparably greater
than that of the Mayoralty, though invested with nothing like the
outward magnificence that gilds and embroiders the latter. If I have
been correctly informed, the Lord-Mayor's salary is exactly double that
of the President of the United States, and yet is found very inadequate
to his necessary expenditure.

There were two reception-rooms, thrown into one by the opening of wide
folding-doors; and though in an old style, and not yet so old as to be
venerable, they are remarkably handsome apartments, lofty as well as
spacious, with carved ceilings and walls, and at either end a splendid
fireplace of white marble, ornamented with sculptured wreaths of flowers
and foliage. The company were about three hundred, many of them
celebrities in politics, war, literature, and science, though I
recollect none preeminently distinguished in either department. But it
is certainly a pleasant mode of doing honor to men of literature, for
example, who deserve well of the public, yet do not often meet it face
to face, thus to bring them together, under genial auspices, in
connection with persons of note in other lines. I know not what may be
the Lord-Mayor's mode or principle of selecting his guests, nor whether,
during his official term, he can proffer his hospitali