Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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of the 33rd of Geo. II., and the 11th and 12th of Geo.
III. The corporation consists of a lord mayor, 24
aldermen, and a common council. The lord mayor
is annually elected from among the aldermen, by a
majority of that body, with the approbation of the
common council; the alderman next in rotation is
generally chosen. Within ten days after his election,
he must be presented to the lord-lieutenant and privy
council for their approbation, and is sworn into office
before the lord-lieutenant on Sept. 30th; he is a
justice of the peace for the county of the city, admiral
of the port of Dublin, and chief Judge of the Lord
Mayor’s and Sheriffs’ courts; he has the regulation of
the assize of bread, and is clerk of the market, and, ex
officio, a member of certain local boards and trusts. The
aldermen, who are also justices of the peace for the city,
are elected for life, as vacancies occur, from among such
common-councilmen as have served the office of sheriff,
and are therefore called sheriffs’ peers; each on his election
pays £400 late currency, of which £105 is for the Blue-
coat hospital, and the remainder for the repair and em-
bellishment of the Mansion-house. The sheriffs are
annually elected at Easter by the lord mayor and alder-
men out of eight freemen nominated by the common
council, and each of them must be in possession of real
or personal property to the clear amount of £2000; they
must be approved by the lord-lieutenant and privy
council; but on payment of a fine of £500, of which
£105 is given to the Blue-coat hospital, a freeman so
nominated may become a sheriffs’ peer without serving
the office of sheriff. The common council consists of
the sheriffs’ peers, and of the representatives of the
guilds triennially elected, who are 96 in number, and
who, in default of election by the guilds, may be chosen
by the lord mayor and aldermen from each of the guilds
so neglecting. The officers of the corporation are a
recorder, who must be a barrister of six years’ standing,
but is not required to be a freeman; he is elected by
the lord mayor and aldermen, with the approbation of
the common council, subject to the approval of the lord-
lieutenant and privy council, holds his office during good
behaviour, and is permitted by the act of the 21st and
22nd of Geo. III., in case of sickness or absence, to ap-
point a deputy, who also, by the 39th of Geo. III., must
be a barrister of six years’ standing: two coroners, elect-
ed from the aldermen by the lord mayor and a majority
of that body alone: a president of the court of con-
science, who is the ex-lord mayor during the year after
his office expires, and may appoint any alderman to
officiate for him: two town-clerks, who are also clerks
of the peace, either freemen or not, and elected for life
in the same manner as the recorder, and subject to the
approval of the privy council: a marshal, who must be
a freeman, and is similarly elected, nominally for one
year, but generally re-elected on its expiration: water
bailiffs, elected in the same manner as the marshal, and
who give security by two sureties for £1000: serjeants-
at-mace, similarly elected, and who give two sureties for
£250 each; and several inferior officers. The freedom
of the city is obtained either by gift of the aldermen
and common-councilmen in general assembly, or by
admission to the freedom of one of the guilds, and after-
wards to that of the city, by favour of the corporation.
Freemen of the guilds, either by birth, servitude, or mar-
riage, can only be admitted as freemen at large by the com-
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mon council, who have power to reject them after passing
through the guilds; hence the freedom of the guilds en-
titles them only to the privilege of carrying on their res-
pective trades, but not to that of voting at elections for the
city representatives in parliament. There are 25 guilds,
the first of which is the Trinity guild or guild of Merch-
ants, which returns 31 representatives out of the 96;
the others, called minor guilds, are those of the Tailors,
Smiths, Barber-Surgeons, Bakers,. Butchers, Carpen-
ters, Shoemakers, Saddlers, Cooks, Tanners, Tallow-
chandlers, Glovers and Skinners, Weavers, Shearmen
and Dyers, Goldsmiths, Coopers, Feltmakers, Cutlers,
Bricklayers, Hosiers, Curriers, Brewers, Joiners, and
Apothecaries. Only six of the guilds have halls; the
others meet either in one of these or in a private build-
ing. The Merchants’ Hall, on Aston’s Quay, opposite
Wellington bridge, is a new building of granite, two
stories high, with little architectural ornament. The
Tailors’ Hall, in Back-lane, built in 1710, is ornamented
with portraits of Chas. II., Dean Swift, and St. Homobon,
a tailor of Cremona, canonized in 1316 for his piety and
charity. The Weavers’ Hall, on the Coombe, is a vener-
able brick building, two stories high, with a pedestrian
statue of Geo. II. over the entrance, and in the Hall a
portrait of the same king woven in tapestry, and one of
a member of the family of La Touche, who had greatly
encouraged the manufacture. The Carpenters’ Hall is
in Audoen’s Arch, the Goldsmiths’ in Golden-lane, and
the Cutlers’ in Capel-street.
The city returns two members to the Imperial parlia-
ment; the right of election, formerly vested in the cor-
poration, freemen, and 40s. freeholders, has been ex-
tended to the £10 householders, and £20 and £10
leaseholders for the respective terms of 14 and 20 years,
by the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88. The num-
ber of voters registered at the first general election under
that act was 7041, of which number, 5126 voted. The
limits of the city, for electoral purposes, include an area of
3538 statute acres, the boundaries of which are minutely
detailed in the Appendix; the number of freemen is about
3500, of whom 2500 are resident and 1000 non-resident,
and the number of £10 houses is 16,000: the sheriffs
are the returning officers. The corporation holds general
courts of quarter assembly at Christmas, Easter, Mid-
summer, and Michaelmas, which are occasionally ad-
journed, and post assemblies sometimes for particular
purposes. As a justice of the peace, the lord mayor pre-
sides at the city quarter sessions, and always attends on
the first day to open the court, accompanied by some of
the aldermen, it being necessary that two at least of
that body should be present with the lord mayor or
recorder to form a quorum. The lord mayor’s and
sheriffs’ courts are held on the Thursday after the first
day of the sessions; each has cognizance of personal
actions to any amount above £2; the process is by
attachment of the defendant’s goods. The lord mayor’s
court, in which he is the sole judge, is held every Thurs-
day either at the city sessions-house, where it is an open
court, or in the Mansion-house, where it may be private;
it has summary jurisdiction, and takes cognizance of
complaints, nuisances, informations, &c. The court of
conscience, for determining causes and recovering debts
not exceeding £2 late currency, is held daily before the
president in the city assembly-house in William-street.
The police establishment, as regulated by the Duke of