culptor, who knew what his female
figures were, has turned the City of London with her back to the
spectator. At the base of this absurd monument two sailors watch over a
bas-relief of the battle of Trafalgar, which certainly no one of taste
would steal. The inscription is from the florid pen of Sheridan.

Facing his father, the gouty old Roman of the true rock, stands William
Pitt, lean, arrogant, and with the nose "on which he dangled the
Opposition" sufficiently prominent. It was the work of J.G. Bubb, and
was erected in 1812, at a cost of L4,078 17s. 3d.; and a pretty mixture
of the Greek Pantheon and the English House of Commons it is! Pitt
stands on a rock, dressed as Chancellor of the Exchequer; below him are
Apollo and Mercury, to represent Eloquence and Learning; and a woman on
a dolphin, who stands for--what does our reader think?--National Energy.
In the foreground is what guide-books call "a majestic figure" of
Britannia, calmly holding a hot thunderbolt and a cold trident, and
riding side-saddle on a sea-horse. The inscription is by Canning. The
statue of Wellington, by Bell, cost L4,966 10s.

The Court of Aldermen is a richly-gilded room with a stucco ceiling,
painted with allegorical figures of the hereditary virtues of the City
of London--Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude--by that
over-rated painter, Hogarth's father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill, who
was presented by the Corporation with a gold cup, value L225 7s. In the
cornices are emblazoned the arms of all the mayors since 1780 (the year
of the Gordon riots). Each alderman's chair bears his name and arms.

The apartment, says a writer in Knight's "London," as its name tells us,
is used for the sittings of the Court of Aldermen, who, in judicial
matters, form the bench of magistrates for the City, and in their more
directly corporate capacity try the validity of ward elections, and
claims to freedom; who admit and swear brokers, superintend prisons,
order prosecutions, and perform a variety of other analogous duties; a
descent, certainly, from the high position of the ancient "ealdormen,"
or superior Saxon nobility, from whom they derive their name and partly
their functions. They were called "barons" down to the time of Henry I.,
if, as is probable, the latter term in the charter of that king refers
to the aldermen. A striking proof of the high rank and importance of the
individuals so designated is to be found in the circumstance that the