Lord Melbourne is for decorating the interior of the Houses of Parliament, if it be right to do so, but he is not for doing it, whether right or wrong, for the purpose of spending the public money in the encouragement of the Fine Arts.

Whether it is to be painting or sculpture, or both; if painting, what sort of painting, what are to be the subjects chosen, and who are to be the artists employed?
All these questions furnish ample food for discussion, difference, and dispute.

Chantrey says fresco will never do; it stands ill in every climate, will never stand long in this, even in the interior of a building, and in a public work such as this is, durability is the first object to be aimed at.

He says that there is in the Vatican a compartment of which the middle portion has been painted by Giulio Romano[107] in fresco, and at each of the ends there is a figure painted by Raphael in oil.

The fresco painting has been so often repaired in consequence of decay, that not a vestige of the original work remains; while the two figures painted by Raphael in oil still stand out in all their original freshness, and even improved from what they were when first executed....
Lord Melbourne dined and slept on Wednesday at Wimbledon.[108] He met there Lord and Lady Cottenham, Lord[109] and Lady Langdale, Lord Glenelg and his brother, Mr Wm.