The Ministerial banquet at the Mansion House on Wednesday was
not very interesting, except in revealing the unsuspected character of flowery and almost Persian poet, which lay hidden beneath the unpretending exterior of the Lord Mayor (Mr.. Alderman Lusk). In proposing the health of the Royal Family, he said of the Princess of Wales, " With regard to the Princess. of Wales, we all know she is perfection. She sparkles like a gem of fifty facets. She is Light when she smiles, and she is Beauty whenever you see her." That peroration is rather bald, other- wise Hafiz himself could hardly have excelled the Lord Mayor. In proposing the health of Her Majesty's Ministers, the Lord Mayor was not so flowery, but still, for a Liberal, very com- plimentary. He had never till now sat on the same side of the House, perhaps be should rather say the same side of the table,. as Mr. Disraeli ; but so far as it had gone, he found it rather agreeable, and he had by no means found that " distance lends enchantment to the view," but rather neighbourhood. Ministers. were managing the affairs of the nation "carefully, and, upon the whole, very well." Mr. Disraeli must not think he (the Lord Mayor) was an "extinct volcano," but " perhaps it would be wise to suppress his fire till a more convenient season."
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