Evelyn relates, in his Diary, June 18, 1683, that he beheld the humble submission of the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and Aldermen, when they offered a humble petition to His Majesty "on the quo warranto against their Charter, which they delivered to His Majesty in the Presence Chamber," after which the King returned into the Council Chamber, when the Mayor and his brethren were called in: "And my Lord Keeper made a speech to them, exaggerating the disorderly and riotous behaviour in the late election, and polling for Papillon and Du Bois after the Commonhall had been formally dissolved; with other misdemeanours, libells on the Government, etc., by which they had incurred His Majesty's high displeasure," etc. Terms were then made with them, they resigning the privilege of electing Mayor, Sheriff, Alderman, Recorder, etc., without His Majesty's approbation; and conceding that to their presentation a veto might be given.

Attempts were made by King James II. to conciliate the City. His Lord Chancellor Jefferies was appointed to carry back the Charter to Guildhall, but this did not overcome the antipathy, Jefferies having been in ill odour and esteemed an enemy of the civic liberties. When William came, the City lost no time in petitioning that an Act might be passed for restoration of their Charter, and the obtaining this "made Pilkington the most popular man of the day." His elevation to the Mayoralty in 1689 was a natural result of his zeal, and the presence of William and Mary, of Anne and her husband George, the Bishop of London (Compton, of warlike proclivities), the Judges, and Ambassadors, increased the honours of the occasion. The pageant, "at the proper costs and charges of the Right Worshipful Company of Skinners," was by Matthew Taubman, and is still extant in print with its songs.

As might be expected, there were numerous ballads written, and publicly sung on all these riotous commotions of elections, libel-cases and perjury-provings, with the installation of political demagogues on either side. Several of these ballads are preserved in N.T.'s 180 Loyal Songs; others, of the Anti-Romanist class, in the various Collections of Songs and Poems against Popery, 1689, and the Poems on Affairs of State. Our "Groaning

The judgment in the London Charter case, Quo Warranto, was delivered in the Michaelmas term of 1683. The senior Puisne Judge of the King's Bench, Mr. Justice Jones, declared that for a Corporation aggregate "to assume the power of making bye-laws to levy money is a just cause of forfeiture; and that the Petition [against King Charles dissolving the Parliament] in the pleadings mentioned is so scandalous to the King and his government, that it is a just cause of forfeiture. Therefore, the Court doth award that the liberties and franchises of the City of London be seised into the King's hands."

Board" ballad, p. 99, is connected slightly with them, but of earlier date. The whole of the succession of party-squabbles is of historical interest, and deserves to be illustrated fully. Thomas Allen gives a summary of the events in his History and Antiquities of London, 1827, vol. i. pp. 444-468, but with a strong bias against the Court. The truth is, neither side showed any nobility or zeal for truth and justice. We shall have to return, finally, to the subject when considering "the Plotter's Ballad," 1678, "Dangerfield's Dance," 1685, "The Waking Vision," 1681, and "Since counterfeit Plots," 1679, on later pages, Bagford Coll., iii. 50, 51, 64, and 44.

If a complete copy of the "Elegy " be found, hereafter, it can be reprinted for insertion.

Late Lord Mayor of London; who departed this Life

on the 16th of November, 1691.

[OW shall the Good, the Great, and Vertuous dye,

NOW

And Death the keenest of his Darts let flye,

Laying the lofty Cedars level low,

And not our Eyes like Chrystal Fountains flow?

Sure no, the Grief and Sorrow which we feel,
No living Soul is able to conceal :

Let all the Streets be hang'd with Sable now,
As Grief is plac'd on each dejected Brow..

Sir Thomas Pilkington, our late Lord Mayor,
Who Govern'd with a constant Christian Care;
He's dead and gone from us, or fall'n asleep,

[Some verses intervened.]

Yet tho' alas he suffer'd for a while,

At length the God of Love was pleas'd to smile,
And let this worthy Christian live to see,
The ever blessed year of Jubilee.

Freed from the strict Confinement of his Foes,
And Joseph-like to Dignity he 'rose;
After he had been thus afflicted sore,

His Glory shin'd more brighter than before.1

[Plac'd] on a Seat of Honour, Care, and Trust,
In which he prov'd faithfull, upright and just;
Which [caused the] Citizens so to rejoyce

[No more preserved.]

1 This double comparative had earlier been common. Thus we find, in the Tempest, Act i. sc. 2, Miranda is reminded of being ignorant of her father's condition

"Nor that I am more better

Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father."

The West-Country Counsellor.

"Sigh no more, Ladies, sigh no more;
Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea, and one on shore;
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe

Into, Hey nonny nonny."

Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3.

WE have already had occasion to mention the tune "Fond

Boy," or as it is here printed "Fond Boys," &c., on p. 219, at that time still doubtful. The bracketted addition thereunto, "Fond Boy, [why dost thou dally ?]" which was supplied to it. was erroneous. It resulted from a mistaken remembrance of the Roxburghe Ballad,

"Fond Love, why dost thou dally

And mocke my passions with thy disdaine?

there is no blisse

where coynesse is,

Seeke not thy pleasure in my paine,

But let the chaste torments of my desire
Kindle in thee propitious fire:

So shall the pleasures of thy sweet imbraces
Conquer the griefe of my former disgraces;

Then those stormes past, shall mercie appeare,
And thou of cruelty goe quit and cleare.'

We give this first verse to indicate the metre, which is evidently quite different from that of either our Bagford ballad, ii. 62, "The West-Country Miser; or, an Unconscionable Farmer's Miserable End" (p. 221), or the following "West-Country Counsellor." The former of these had an alternative tune, "If Love's a sweet passion" (see p. 179). But the Roxburghe ballad, in Roxb. Coll., i. 126, is conjoined to the tune of "The Mocke Widdowe," of a rhythm bearing no resemblance to ours. "Fond Boy" belongs to about 1684, or a little earlier. It is found in the

1 Another ballad with a similar moral, in reproof of "unconscionable farmers," should be read in connexion with this. It is in Roxb. Coll., ii. 396, beginning, "A wealthy man, a Farmer, Who had of corn great store." 1685-88. It is entitled, "The Rich Farmer's Ruine, who murmured at the Plenty of the seasons, because he could not sell corn so dear as his covetous heart desired." Tune, “Why are my eyes still flowing?" See our pp. 86-91; and, thanks to this Roxb. ballad being licensed by R. Pocock, we limit our Bagford date, on p. 91, to 1684-88. We gradually narrow our circle to a point of certainty.

Pepys Collection, v. 184, a ballad of six long-line stanzas, in two columns, entitled "An Excellent New Song, of the Two Happy Lovers; or, The Young Man and Maid's Constancy. To an excellent New Play-house Tune, much in Request." Three lines of music are given, and it was printed for Philip Brooksby, at the Golden Ball, etc., no doubt between 1672 and 1685. It begins,

"Fond Boy, what dost thou mean,

Thus my Heart to surprize ?"

There is a smack of "Packington's Pound" about our ballad. We know not of another copy existing, and are well pleased that this one has come down to us. It is a good-humoured bantering warning, and the utterer well knew that the advice was likely to be taken by none except those who had no chance of a lover. Old maids, and such disagreeable young women as are loudly clamouring for feminine rights, and the removal of all disqualifications from their becoming surgical operators, Lord Chancellors, M.P.s, Archbishops, Poor-Law Guardians, and Salaried Executioners, are always ready (when no offer of marriage comes their way) to rail against naughty young men,"For a true-hearted lover there's scarce one in ten!"

But the writer of this, The West-Country Counsellor, was of masculine sex, we may be sure, and well furnished with common sense and sound feeling. His "Advice to the Lasses of London" is by no means out of date. Male-flirts are shown up by him, and those greedy cormorants who plunder women, but never marry except for money. Sensualists, rakes, and hypocrites escape not scot-free, and the sixth verse gives a manly rebuke of the base seducers who are unsatisfied until they have ruined "a poor innocent maid, Then with scorn and derision they will her degrade." To the specially discriminating diagnoses in the three last verses we offer no objection; seeing that our individual temperament is in favour. The red-haired, the yellow-haired, and two-colour-bearded men may object; but we, the dark-brown, who received such certificates of goodbehaviour, constancy, and tenderness, feel that our market-value is above suspicion.

There is a still more exhaustive and depreciating catalogue des femmes dangereuses in the " Merry Drollery" Advice to Bachelors, 1661, ii. p. 343, beginning "He that intends to take a wife."