File:Old and new London - a narrative of its history, its people, and its places (1873) (14761570606).jpg

Identifier: oldnewlondonnarr03thor (find matches)
Title: Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Thornbury, Walter, 1828-1876
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Publisher: London : Cassell, Petter, & Galpin
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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alpole down toWilliam Pitt. What others accounted humblework became in his hands most important; andthe Kings Messenger, as he styled himself,yielded to none of his Majestys ministers in hisidea of the dignity of his office, when entrustedwith addresses, bills, royal speeches, and other garb corresponded with his wizard-like shape, andhis immense cocked hat was continually in motion,to assist him in the bows of the old school. Therecognition and nods of great men were his especialdelight; but he imagined that this courtesy wasdue to his character, as being identified with theState, and the Chancellor and the Speaker wereconsidered by him in no other view than personsfilling departments in common with himself, forthe seals of the one and the mace of the otherdid not, in his estimation, distinguish them morethan the bag used by himself in the transmissionof the despatches entrusted to his care. The im-perfect intellect given to him seemed only to fit Whitehall.1 THE KIXGS MESSENGER. 391
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392 OLD AND NEW LONDON. (Whitehall!.. )iim for the situation he filled. Take him out ofit, lie was as helpless as a child, and easily becamea dupe to any one who was disposed to imposeupon him. With a high opinion of his own judg-ment, however, he diverted himself and others bymimicking the voice and manner of his superiors,when he thought he perceived any assumptionof character. Poor old John Smith, who felt asif he carried the world on his shoulders, and wasas important a part of the constitution, in his ownconceit, as the Prime Minister himself, died in 1818,at the age of ninety. Downing Street—though for a century and a halfthe name was almost synonymous with the exist-ing administration—has become almost entirely athing of the past; for though two or three of thehouses which were so familiar to Spencer Perceval,George Canning, and Lord Liverpool are still.standing at the farther end, yet most of these havebeen absorbed into the large block of new publicbuildings which have be

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