Monday, 2nd October.—Mr Montefiore and his colleague went to Newgate. In the afternoon they proceeded to Windsor, and inscribed their names in the Duchess of Kent's visitors' book. The next day Mr Montefiore called on the Lord Mayor, who introduced him to Alderman Cowan, the Lord Mayor elect; he also attended the Hustings at the Guildhall in his violet gown, the Lord Mayor and Mr George Carrol being present. He afterwards settled, with Messrs Maynard, Carrol, and Wire, the toasts and the grace before dinner, and proceeded with these gentlemen to the Lord Mayor to submit them for his approval. This having been obtained, he went to the Merchant Taylors' Hall to see that the arrangement of the tables was satisfactory.
The inauguration dinner of the new Sheriffs took place at the Merchant Taylors' Hall in Threadneedle Street. The number of guests who sat down to dinner was not less than four hundred; and the Lord Mayor presided. After the cloth was removed, the usual toasts were proposed by the Lord Mayor, and the two Sheriffs returned thanks, each in a separate speech.
Mr Sheriff Montefiore said: "My Lord Mayor, my Lords and gentlemen, if I consulted my own feelings of diffidence on this occasion, I confess I should have remained silent, and have allowed my friend and colleague to return our united thanks for the honour conferred on us by the distinguished company. But as custom demands that I should say a few words, I rise to express briefly, and I fear imperfectly, my feelings of gratitude for the flattering manner in which my health has been proposed, and the warm and affectionate greeting with which it has been received. New to the high and important office I have been called upon by the kind wishes of my fellow-citizens to fill, it will readily be conceived that I cannot be acquainted with all its various duties. But I can assure you it shall be my study to understand their nature, and my earnest endeavour to fulfil them in such a manner as to justify my fellow-citizens in the choice they have made. Although I cannot pretend to say that I will do what your late Sheriffs have done, still less to surpass them in their efforts to be useful, yet I hope, so far, to imitate their example as to show my anxiety to transmit to my successors the functions of my office unimpaired in their usefulness, and its privileges undiminished in their value. Believing that it is not a political office, and yet that it has duties both to the Queen and to the public, I hope, in the execution of those duties, to swerve neither to the right nor the left, but on the one hand to uphold the rightful prerogatives of the Crown, and on the other to support the just liberties of the people. Called upon by the free, intelligent, and wealthy citizens of this great city to fill so important an office, I trust that I shall never be found wanting in any efforts to prove that the great privilege of electing their own Sheriffs may be safely entrusted to the people. May I add that in choosing the humble individual before you to fill so important an office, they have shown that private character, when based on integrity, will secure public honour and respect? Nor is it less gratifying to find that, though professing a different faith from the major it of my fellow-citizens, yet this has presented no barrier to my desire of being useful to them in a situation to which my forefathers would in vain have aspired; and I hail this as a proof that those prejudices are passing away, and will pass away, which prevent our feelings from being as widely social, as just, as comprehensive in their effect as the most amiable and best-instructed mind can desire. Nor can I forget, while alluding to kindly feelings, how much I am indebted to those friends who, unasked and unsolicited, proposed and elected me to the office which now gives me the opportunity of addressing you. To them, to you, to the Livery at large, I again tender my thanks, and I beg to assure you that, whatever may be necessary to enhance the high, respectability of my office, to support its splendour, to maintain its rights, to add to its honour, and to make it more useful to my fellow-citizens—if it can be made more useful—I will attempt, and with your countenance and support, I trust, accomplish. Thus acting, I shall hope to receive the only reward I seek—the thanks of my fellow-citizens, and the approbation of my own conscience."
The Attorney-General in replying to the toast, "The health of Her Majesty's Ministers," given by the Lord Mayor, alluded to Mr Montefiore in the following words:—"There could be no more honourable or important office than that of Sheriff, and although Mr Montefiore differed in faith from the established religion, there could be no doubt that he would discharge the duties which devolved on him with equal credit to himself and advantage to the city. He (the Attorney-General) was one of those who thought that the only qualification which should exist for such offices was that the holder should be a good citizen; and he recollected with no small degree of satisfaction, that it was he who had brought in the Bill, a measure that passed through the Legislature by, he might say, the unanimous vote of both Houses of Parliament, which entitled Mr Montefiore to occupy the position he then held. He was happy to say that the ancient prejudices, founded on difference of religious belief, were fast wearing away, and he only hoped the time was at hand when objections on such grounds would altogether cease to operate. It was the desire of Her Majesty's Government to promote such a state of things by all the means in their power; and for his own part, his opinion was that, so far from injuring the Constitution, it would tend materially to uphold and strengthen it."
Mr and Mrs Montefiore returned to Park Lane at two o'clock from the inauguration dinner, much pleased with the reception they had met with from their fellow-citizens.
CHAPTER XV.
1837.
DEATH OF MR MONTEFIORE'S UNCLE—MR MONTEFIORE RIDES IN THE LORD MAYOR'S PROCESSION—IS KNIGHTED—HIS SPEECH AT THE LORD MAYOR'S BANQUET—PRESENTS PETITION ON BEHALF OF THE JEWS TO PARLIAMENT.
We may now consider Mr Montefiore as almost entirely occupied with the discharge of the duties of his office as Sheriff. We shall give here the entries he made referring to the subject, some of which are particularly interesting.
From the following entry one can form an idea of the way in which he spent his days during his year of office:—