knights and before the great
chaplains of dignitys and the knights of the garter being noe lords." The
lord mayor (the report went on to say) was not named in the procession,
but at the mass and offering at the interment it appeared that the lord
mayor, with his mace in hand, offered next after the lord chamberlain, and
the aldermen who had been mayors offered next to the knights of the garter
and before the knights of the body, after whom came those aldermen who had
not been lord mayor.(1814) The committee concluded their report by
recommending that a deputation should wait upon the Privy Council and
assert the right of the Court of Aldermen to mourning. The representation
thereupon made had the desired effect and the usual mourning was allowed
by warrant (29 Jan.).(1815) The citizens marked their respect for the late
queen by shutting up their shops on the day of the funeral.(1816)

(M909)

The session of 1695 of William's first parliament was signalised by the
discovery of a system of wholesale corruption. That every man had his
price was scarcely less true in William's day than it was in the later age
of Sir Robert Walpole. The discovery of one delinquent guilty of receiving
money for services, real or supposed, quickly led to another, until
suspicion turned upon the City of London itself. A rumour rapidly gained
ground to the effect that the funds of the City as well as those of the
East India Company had been largely employed in winning the favour of men
in power, and the name of Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the House of
Commons, was mentioned among others.

(M910)

On the 7th March the House appointed a committee to investigate the
matter, with power to send for persons and papers.(1817) On the 12th the
committee reported to the House that they had discovered an order of a
committee appointed by the Corporation for the purpose of seeing the
Orphans' Bill through parliament, dated the 12th February, 1694,
authorising the payment of 1,000 guineas to the Speaker, Sir John Trevor,
as soon as the Bill should pass. This order, they said, was signed by
every member of the committee except Sir James Houblon and Mr. Deputy
Ayres, and was endorsed to the effect that the money had been delivered
and paid to the Hon. Sir John Trevor on the 22nd June, 1694, in the
presence of Sir Robert Clayton and Sir James Houblon, brother of Sir
John.(1818) When summoned to account for his having refused to sign the
order of the co