Samuel Birch (Lord Mayor of London) advocacy of the Protestant ascendency in Ireland. In 1811, he was appointed one of the sheriffs of London, and on 9 November 1814 Birch entered on his duties as lord mayor. Tory though he was, he opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and presided at a meeting of the livery in common hall on 23 February 1815, when he made a vigorous attack upon the intended prohibition of the free importation of foreign corn. The course he took on this occasion is commemorated by a medal struck in his honour on the obverse side of which is the bust of
Lord Mayor of London as a symbol of the latter's overlordship. The monarch does not, as is often purported, wait for the Lord Mayor's permission to enter the City. When the sovereign enters the city, a short ceremony usually takes place where the Lord Mayor symbolically surrenders his or her authority to the monarch by presenting the sword to them. If the sovereign is attending a service at St Paul's this ceremony would take place there rather than at the boundary of the City for matters of convenience. The importance of the office is reflected by the composition of the Accession Council, a body