3 OCTOBER 1863, Page 3

The Lord Mayor has given a bust of the Prince

of Wales to the Court of Common Council, accompanying the present with the curious statement that "having had the unprecedented honour of filling the office of Chief Magistrate of the City of London on the occasion of the Prince of Wales coming of age," he had "asked and obtained consent to present a marble bust of the Prince for the adornment of the Council Chamber." Does the eloquent Mayor mean that it was an unprecedented honour to be Lord Mayor when this Prince of Wales came of age, or when any Prince of Wales came of age ? The former would, no doubt, be without precedent, as it would equally be to have been Lord Mayor at any given moment throughout his Mayoralty ; since two Lord Mayors cannot co-exist in any given moment, being mutually exclusive phenomena. if he meant that the honour of being Lord Mayor when any Prince of Wales came of age is without precedent, we should be dis- posed to regard the statement as an historical error. Princes of Wales have occasionally come of age before, and the Lord Mayor is a phenomenon of all time.