LORD MAYOR’S DAY, in England, the 9th of November, the date of the inauguration of the lord mayor of London (see Vol. XVI., p. 966), marked by a pageant known as the Lord Mayor’s Show. The first of these pageants was held in 1215. The idea originated in the stipulation made in a charter then granted by John that the citizen chosen to be mayor should be presented to the king or his justice for approval. The crowd of citizens who accompanied the mayor on horseback to Westminster developed into a yearly pageant, which each season became more elaborate. Until the 15th century the mayor either rode or walked to Westminster, but in 1453 Sir John Norman appears to have set a fashion of going by water. From 1639 to 1655 the show disappeared owing to Puritan opposition. With the Restoration the city pageant was revived, but interregnums occurred during the years of the plague and fire, and in 1683 when a quarrel broke out between Charles and the city, ending in the temporary abrogation of the charter. In 1711 an untoward accident befell the show, the mayor Sir Gilbert Heathcote (the original of Addison’s Sir Andrew Freeport) being thrown by his horse. The next year a coach was, in consequence, provided for the chief magistrate. In 1757 this was superseded by a gilded and elaborately decorated equipage costing £10,065 which was used till 1896, when a replica of it was built to replace it.
LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL, in England, one of the great officers of state, and a member of the ministry. It was only in 1679 that the office of lord president became permanent. Previously either the lord chancellor, the lord keeper of the seal, or some particular court official took formal direction of the Privy Council. In the reign of Charles I. a special lord president of the council was appointed, but in the following reign the office was left unfilled. The office was of considerable importance when the powers of the Privy Council, exercised through various committees, were of greater extent than at the present time. For example, a committee of the lords of the council was formerly responsible for the work now dealt with by the secretary of state for foreign affairs; so also with that now discharged by the Board of Trade. The lord president up to 1855—when a new post of vice-president of the council was created—was responsible for the education department. He was also responsible for the duties of the council in regard to public health, now transferred to the Local Government Board, and for duties in regard to agriculture, now transferred to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The duties of the office now consist of presiding on the not very frequent occasions when the Privy Council meets, and of the drawing up of minutes of council upon subjects which do not belong to any other department of state. The office is very frequently held in conjunction with other ministerial offices, for example, in Gladstone’s fourth ministry the secretary of state for India was also lord president of the council, and in the conservative ministry of 1903 the holder of the office was also president of the Board of Education. The lord president is appointed by a declaration made in council by the sovereign. He is invariably a member of the House of Lords, and he is also included in the cabinet.
LORDS JUSTICES OF APPEAL, in England, the ordinary judges of the court of appeal, the appellate division of the High Court of Justice. Their style was provided for by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1877. The number was fixed at five by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1881, s. 3. Their salary is £5000 a year (see [Appeal]).
LORDS OF APPEAL IN ORDINARY, in England, certain persons (limited to four), who, having held high judicial office or practised at the bar for not less than fifteen years, sit as members of the House of Lords to adjudicate in cases before that House in its legal capacity, and also to aid the judicial committee of the Privy Council in hearing appeals. Of the four lords of appeal in ordinary one is usually appointed from the Irish bench or bar and one from Scotland. Their salary is £6000 a year. They hold office on the same conditions as other judges. By the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, under which they are appointed, lords of appeal in ordinary are, by virtue of and according to the date of their appointment, entitled during life to rank as barons and during the time that they continue in office are entitled to a writ of summons to attend, and to sit and vote in the House of Lords. They are life peers only. The patent of a lord of appeal in ordinary differs from that of a baron in that he is not “created” but “nominated and appointed to be a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary by the style of Baron.”
LORD STEWARD, in England, an important official of the king’s household. He is always a member of the government, a peer and a privy councillor. Up to 1782, the office was one of considerable political importance and carried cabinet rank. The lord steward receives his appointment from the sovereign in person, and bears a white staff as the emblem and warrant of his authority. He is the first dignitary of the court. In the Statutes of Eltham he is called “the lord great master,” but in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth “the lord steward,” as before and since. In an act of Henry VIII. (1539) “for placing of the lords,” he is described as “the grand master or lord steward of the king’s most honourable household.” He presides at the Board of Green Cloth.[1] In his department are the treasurer and comptroller of the household, who rank next to him. These officials are usually peers or the sons of peers and privy councillors. They sit at the Board of Green Cloth, carry white staves, and belong to the ministry. But the duties which in theory belong to the lord steward, treasurer and comptroller of the household are in practice performed by the master of the household, who is a permanent officer and resides in the palace. He is a white-staff officer and a member of the Board of Green Cloth but not of the ministry, and among other things he presides at the daily dinners of the suite in waiting on the sovereign. In his case history repeats itself. He is not named in the Black Book of Edward IV. or in the Statutes of Henry VIII., and is entered as “master of the household and clerk of the green cloth” in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth. But he has superseded the lord steward of the household, as the lord steward of the household at one time superseded the lord high steward of England.