It seems like, from this point on, there is never again a point when Bilbo is regarded by the dwarves as unnecessary baggage. Their opinion of him has been slowly rising, but once they have recovered from their barrel-riding escape from the Wood Elves, their opinion of Bilbo is fixed at a high level.
It is evidence that they are correct, that Bilbo is not cheered by the adulation of the Laketown folks, as the dwarves are. He is thinking ahead to the approach to Smaug and the Lonely Mountain, and he does not like it (as well he should not). Thorin, on the other hand, is puffed up by the experience of being treated as the King he regards himself as being. It occurs to me that he may have spent a great deal of his life living in standards well below what he was raised to consider the minimum acceptable. It must be a hard thing to be born a king and live your entire adult life as, essentially, a blacksmith.
The mayor of Laketown is an all-too-recognizable figure. There is almost nothing we need say about him, he is so clearly cast from a modern politician's mold. It is a hint as to JRRT's attitude towards politicians, I suppose, although really not far from mine. On the other hand, while JRRT is sometimes accused of romanticizing monarchy, his depiction of Thorin is full of flaws as well, I suppose.
It occurs to me that JRRT was from the last generation of Europeans for whom the question of democracy vs. monarchy was other than theoretical. He fought in WW1, which was essentially the death knell of ruling monarchies in Europe. Thus, one wonders if his opinions on the relative flaws of each are not perhaps a bit better informed than more modern readers'. If I had to pick between the Master of Laketown and Thorin for leaders, I would ask for a third option.
Chapter 11