PROCESSION OF THE TRADES.
Dublin corporation anecdote—Splendid triennial procession of the Dublin corporation, called Fringes (franchises), described.
Nothing can better show the high opinion formerly entertained by the Irish of their own notoriety, and particularly by that celebrated body called the “Corporation of Dublin,” than the following incident. Mr. Willis, a leather-breeches-maker in Dame-street, and a famous orator at the corporation meetings, holding forth on a debate about the parochial watch (a subject which was considered as of the utmost general importance), discoursed as follows:—“This, my friends, is a subject neither trifling nor obscure; the character of our corporation is at stake on your decision!—recollect,” continued he, “recollect, brother freemen, that the eyes of all Europe are upon us!”—The volunteers were certainly of some celebrity, and it was supposed they would not be unheard of in foreign countries.[[46]]
[46]. At the breaking out of the American war Colonel Brown, in derision of the colonists, declared, that he would march through all America with St. Andrew’s watchmen!—This declaration being made in the House of Commons, was thought to be in earnest by several members of the Dublin corporation. It was therefore suggested by one of the body to address his Majesty with a tender of the watchmen of St. Andrew’s, St. Ann’s, and St. Peter’s parishes, for American service. This serious offer drew down on the poor colonel such a volley of ridicule, that he never after mentioned America in Parliament. But such was the general contempt of the Americans at the commencement of the contest.
Colonel Brown was brother to old Lord Altamont.
One of the customs of Dublin which prevailed in my early days made such a strong impression upon my mind, that it never could be obliterated. The most magnificent and showy procession, I really believe, except those of Rome, then took place in the Irish metropolis every third year, and attracted a number of English quite surprising, if we take into account the difficulty and hazard of a passage at that time from London to Dublin.
The corporation of the latter city were, by the terms of their charter, bound, once in three years, to perambulate the limits of the lord mayor’s jurisdiction, to make stands or stations at various points, and to skirt the Earl of Meath’s liberties—a part of the city at that era in great prosperity, but forming a local jurisdiction under the earl (in the nature of a manor) totally distinct from that of Dublin.
This procession being in fact partly intended to mark and to designate the extreme boundaries of his lordship’s jurisdiction, at those points where they touch the Earl of Meath’s liberty, the lord mayor thrust his sword through the wall of a certain house;—and then concluded the ceremony by approaching the sea at low water, and hurling a javelin as far upon the sands as his strength admitted, which was understood to form the boundary between him and Neptune.