LONDON’S COMPLIMENTS TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4382, 6 April 1875, Page 3

LONDON’S COMPLIMENTS TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

(From The Times, Jan. S.) When the Emperor of Russia went to Guildhall in Slay, in the course of his visit to.this country, an address of congratulation was presented to him by the citizens of London. Illuminated and embossed, the address was always meant to be forwarded to Russia, and its words were worth preserving, although their allusions were confined to two points—the union between the two countries, expressed by the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, and the emaucipation of the serfs by the Czar, a measure so consonant with English sentiment. The scroll of the address was to be sent after the Czar to St. Petersburg iu a golden casket, and in the competition for manufacturing the casket Mr. Benson, of Lud-gate-hill, succeeded. The design adopted is an oblong case of. gold supported upon balls of solid malachite. The minor ornamentation of the case is supplied by the heraldic insignia of England, Russia, and of the City, but the principal artistic detail is a miniature painting representing the delivery of the address. The scene is enamelled upon a plate of gold 2Mn. high by IJin. wide, which will be framed iu the obverse side of the casket, the reverse of the casket bearing an inscription. Eleven figures are painted on these few square inches of surface, and the tallest figure is 1 11-16 in. in height, while any of the faces can be covered with the top of a pencil. In that small space, however, the artist, a young lady named Mdlle. Hdbert, living at Geneva, has given a life-like and effective representation of the scene in Guildhall. On the right of the picture stands upon a dais the Emperor Alexander, in the uniform of a General of his army, his tunic crossed by the riband of the Garter, and decked with the other Orders which used to glitter on his breast; on his right hand the Duchess of Edinburgh, wearing an orange-colored dress, then our Prince of Wales and the Grand Duke Alexis. On the left is the Princess of Wales, iu light-blue bodice and deep-blue velvet skirt, the velvet in the miniature such as only the lady or Mr. Millais could paint. The Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Cambridge, in uniform and in their Orders, complete the Royal group. The dark crimson bangings used on State occasions at the Guildhall make a good bao eground, but to the left there is a better effect in the stone flutings of the ancient hall, on which the sun, through the mullioued windows, is tracing delicate patterns iu light and shade. On this side of the picture is the group of citizens, the Lord Mayor (Sir Andrew Lusk, M.P.) in front, and on his right the Right Hon. the Recorder (Mr. Russell Gurney, Q.C.jM.P.) reading the address. Behind them stands Mr. Edward Hart, Chairman of the Reception Committee, who proposed the address in the Court of Common Council, and ins blue robe of a member of the Common Council contrasts effectively with the crimson robes of office of the Lord Mayor, the Recorder*, and the seconder of the address, Mr. Alderman Bealey. There are two other enamelled miniatures to be placed in smaller panels of the casket, and they represent the eastern and western ends of the Guildhall. The risks to which this class of work is exposed are shown by the fact that one of those two pictures (which are being executed iu England) has twice been painted and has twice shivered to pieces in the burning. The casket cannot be finished till the pictures are all ready, but the most important part of the work has now been successfully accomplished.