There was a very comic scene in the City Council
on Thursday. It seems that Mr. Melville, portrait painter, thought the presen- tation of the freedom of the City tp the Prince of Wales a grand opportunity for the display of his ait, and painted a huge picture, 10 feet by 15, containing .582. figures and 482 portraits, most of them Common Councilmen in uniform. He asked 5,000/. for this work, and seems to have felt-that, as the Councilmen sat to him, they were morally bound to pay. The City Land's Committee thought so too, and Mr. C. Reed-waist the length of declaring that the civic ceremony represented "one of the greatest events of recent times," a remark in which other Councilmen cordially concurred. The majority, however, were a little ashamed of the job, and declined to vote public money for their awn glorification, Mr. Elliot in par- ticular, proposing to purchase the picture by a subscription of 10/. from everybody painted in it. A motion to pay the artist 500/. was also rejected, and poor Mr. Melville discovers too late that it is possible to reckon too strongly on the vanity of a Common Councilman. We will tell him how to get his money. Let him make every portrait as like and as ugly as he can, and then _threaten to present it to the Royal. Exchange.
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