Time was passing rapidly and yet the establishment of the Commonwealth still remained unproclaimed in the city. On the 10th May Colonel Venn, one of the city members, was ordered to enquire and report to the House as to the cause of the delay.[952] At length, on the 30th May, the formal proclamation was made by Andrews, the new mayor, assisted by twelve of his brother aldermen[953] and by a posse of troops which had to be sent for to preserve order. "It was desired," wrote the secretary of the French ambassador in England to Cardinal Mazarin, "that this act should be effected in the ordinary form of a simple publication, without the mayor and aldermen being supported by any soldiers, in order to show that no violent means had been resorted to; but a crowd of people having gathered around them with hootings and insults, compelled them to send for some troops, who first drove away all bystanders, and thus they finished their publication."[954] A man named Prior was arrested for attempted riot and was sent by the mayor to the Council of State, by whom he was committed to the gatehouse.[955]
Aldermen punished for not attending proclamation.
Two aldermen, Sir Thomas Soame and Richard Chambers, who had absented themselves on the occasion, were called before the bar of the House (1 June) to answer for their conduct. Soame, who was himself a member of the House, boldly declared[pg 312] that the proclamation "was against several oaths which he had taken as an alderman of London, and against his judgment and conscience." Chambers said in defence "that his heart did not go along in that business." Both delinquents were adjudged to lose their aldermanries, and Soame was also condemned to lose his seat in the House.[956] Whilst inflicting punishment upon those who determined to remain staunch to the royalist cause, the House resolved to honour those who supported the new order of things, and on the 6th June a proposal was made to authorise the Speaker "to create the dignity of a knight, and to confer the same upon Thomas Andrews, alderman and lord mayor of London, and Isaac Pennington and Thomas Atkins [Atkin], aldermen and formerly lord mayors."[957]
The Commons and Council of State entertained in the city, 7 June, 1649.
Thursday, the 7th June, having been appointed a day of public thanksgiving for the suppression of the Levellers, the Common Council resolved (29 May) to invite the Commons of England, the Council of State and other high officers, as well as Fairfax and the chief officers of the army, to a dinner at Grocers' Hall, in order to "manifest the city's good affections towards them." The House accepted the invitation and appointed Christchurch, Newgate, to be the church wherein the thanksgiving service was to take place.[958] The same deference and respect was paid on this occasion to the Speaker as was customarily paid to the king, the mayor delivering the civic sword into[pg 313] his hands on entering the city and receiving it back again, whilst the chief seat at the banquet was also surrendered to him.[959]
Gifts of plate to Fairfax and Cromwell.
The City showed exceptional honour to Fairfax and to Cromwell, presenting the former with a bason and ewer of gold weighing 242 ozs. 14 dwts., and the latter with another bason and ewer, as well as with two flower pots, a perfume and chafing dish, two fruit baskets, a kettle and laver and a warming pan, the whole weighing 934 ozs. 9 dwts. Cromwell was also presented with a purse containing £200 in twenty-shilling pieces.[960] Thomas Vyner, a goldsmith of repute, who was sheriff at the time, provided the plate at a cost of £1,412 15s.[961]
Gift of Richmond Park to the city, 17 July.
The House was so pleased with the flattering reception it had received that the next day (8 June) it appointed a special committee "to consider of some mark of favour and respect" to be done to the City,[962] and on the 30th it resolved "that the city of London have the New Park in the county of Surrey settled upon them and their successors, as an act of favour from this House, for the use of the city and their successors, and that an Act be brought in for the purpose."[963] Accordingly, on the 17th July, an Act "for settling the New Park of Richmond, alias Richmond Great Park, on the mayor and commonalty and citizens of London and their successors" was brought in and passed.[964]
Demand for a further loan of £150,000, 5 July, 1649.