A few days before Andrews quitted the mayoralty the Guildhall was the scene of one of those trials for which it is historically famous. On the 24th October[pg 317] (1649) John Lilburne was brought to trial for spreading seditious pamphlets. Parliament had shown every disposition to conciliate this impracticable reformer, but all its efforts had been futile. "Tell your masters from me," said he to a friend who visited him in the Tower, "that if it were possible for me now to choose, I had rather choose to live seven years under old King Charles's government (notwithstanding their beheading him as a tyrant for it) when it was at the worst before this parliament, than live one year under their present government that now rule; nay, let me tell you, if they go on with that tyranny they are in, they will make Prince Charles have friends enow not only to cry him up, but also really to fight for him to bring him into his father's throne."[972] His trial was at length forced on parliament by the injudicious publication of a pamphlet[973] calculated to excite discontent in the army, and a mutiny broke out in the garrison at Oxford so soon after the issue of this pamphlet that it was justly thought to have occasioned the outbreak. The country became flooded with seditious pamphlets to such an extent that an Act was passed for their suppression and for the better regulation of printing. The civic authorities and the Stationers' Company were especially admonished to see the provisions of the Act carried out.[974] What brought matters to a climax was the discovery that the Levellers were entering upon[pg 318] negotiations with Prince Charles, and thereupon the House resolved (11 Sept.) that Lilburne's trial should at once be proceeded with.[975] A special commission of Oyer and Terminer, presided over by Andrews, the outgoing Lord Mayor, and including the Recorder, the Common Sergeant and nine aldermen, was opened at the Guildhall on Wednesday, the 24th October. The trial lasted three days. Lilburne made a spirited defence, winding up with a solemn peroration in which he invoked God Almighty to guide and direct the jury "to do that which is just, and for His glory." His words sent a thrill of enthusiasm through the crowded hall, the audience with "an extraordinary great hum" giving vent to cries of "Amen! Amen!" in such a manner that Skippon, who was in attendance, deemed it advisable to send for more troops in case of disturbance. When in the end a verdict of acquittal was brought in, a wild scene followed. "The whole multitude in the hall, for joy of the prisoner's acquittal, gave such a loud and unanimous shout as is believed was never heard in Guildhall, which lasted for about half an hour without intermission." The judges turned pale from fear, but the prisoner at the bar, so far from displaying any excess of joy, remained unmoved and silent, and "rather more sad in his countenance than he was before."[976] He was conducted back to the Tower, whence he had been brought, amid the acclamations of the multitude. At night bonfires were lighted in his honour. The government made an attempt to detain him still in[pg 319] prison, but in about a fortnight the general discontent of the people and the intercession of friends procured his liberation.
Lilburne elected member of Common Council, 21 Dec., 1649.
Philip Chetwyn disfranchised and sent to Warwick Castle.
The citizens of London further testified their appreciation of this champion of liberty by electing him a member of their Common Council on St. Thomas's Day (21 Dec.), but upon the mayor and aldermen representing the case to parliament the House declared his election void by statute.[977] The matter, however, was compromised by Lilburne consenting to take the engagement "with a declaration of his own sense upon it."[978] Philip Chetwyn, a man somewhat of Lilburne's stamp, who had interested himself in Lilburne's election, was ordered by parliament to lose the freedom of the City, and was committed to Warwick Castle.[979]
Colonel Pride elected member of Common Council, 21 Dec.
Browne dismissed from parliament and his aldermanry, 4 Dec.
Colonel Pride, whose famous "purge" had reduced the House to a mere shadow of its former self, and who was elected a member of the Common Council on the same day as Lilburne, was allowed to take his seat without objection,[980] whilst Colonel John Fenton was declared by the House to be disabled from service as a Common Councilman. On the other hand, the royalist alderman, Major-General Browne, had to go, notwithstanding his past services to parliament and the army. According to the record of the votes of the House of Commons for the 4th December, 1649, preserved in the Journal of the Common Council, Browne was not only dismissed[pg 320] from parliament, but was also discharged and disabled from being an alderman of the city; but in the Journal of the House itself the latter resolution relating to his discharge from his aldermanry was subsequently erased, and a note subscribed to the effect that the vote was vacated by order of parliament made the 26th March, 1659.[981]
Expenses of mayor and sheriffs cut down, 11 Dec, 1649.
The late troubles had sadly depleted the city's Chamber as well as increased the number of the poor within the city's walls. It became necessary to appoint a committee (18 Sept., 1649) to examine the state of the city's finances. The result was that in the following December the Common Council resolved to cut down the table expenses of the mayor and sheriffs, which were found to have materially increased since they were last taken in hand in 1555.[982] Thenceforth it was to be unlawful for any mayor or sheriff to be served at dinner with more than one course; nor were they to have at any time "any more sundry dishes of meat at that one course, to a mess of ten or twelve persons, upon the Lord's day, Tuesday, Thursday or any ordinary festival day, than seaven, whether the same be hot or cold." One or two of the dishes might (if they pleased) be brought to the table hot "after the first five or six be served." On Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday the course was to comprise not more than five sundry dishes of meat or six of fish, to be served in such order as they pleased. Hors d'œuvres, such as "brawne, callups with eggs, sallettes, broth, butter, cheese, eggs,[pg 321] herings, shrimps," and dishes "serveinge onely for settinge forth and furnisheinge the table at any of the said dinners or feasts and not there to be cutt or eaten," were not to be accounted among the dishes thus limited. Similar restrictions were placed upon the diet of the members of the household of the mayor and sheriffs, and no lord mayor or sheriff was to "make any feast" on entering or leaving office.[983]
The mayor and sheriffs no longer to sell places, 1649.