Tor. KING has rarely left the Roya Lodge during this
week, but he enjoys good health and spirits. On Sunday his Majesty gave audience at the Castle to Prince Esterhazy, and Count and Com: ess Nugent. On Monday, the Duchess of (iloncester paid a visit at the Royal Lodge ; and the Marquis of Headfort had audience, at which Inc received the insignia of St. Patrick, worn by his late father. The chroniclers of the Royal movements have discovered, that the King has " lately devoted a good coal of time to the affairs of State."
The Duke of Cumberland dined at Busily Park with the Duke and Duchess of Clarence on Thursday. Several officers of the Horse Guards anti 10th Hussars were there to meet his Royal Highness. * Prince Leopold arrived from the Continent this week, and left town yesterday for his seat at Claremont.
The Duke of Wellington, when he shall leeve the resideuce of Mr. Peel, is expected to visit Mr. Bingham Baring in Norfolk. His Grace's household re- moved on Wednesday night from Downing Street to.his now splendid abode at Hvda Park Corner.
Lady Eldon has been so ill that the physicians despaired of her recovery ; but she is now pronounced out of danger. Lord Eldon labours under a severe fit of gout. •
An official notice was promulgated on the Stock Exchange yesterday, to the effect that all Exchequer Bills dated in the months of October, November, and- December 1828, with the interest thereon, will he paid off ten the 18th Decem- ber, and that such bills will he received until and including the 14th of Decem- ber. The object in view is, the further reduction of the rate of interest on Ex-'
chequer Bids, frog) ad. to per day. The case " King ;old Roebecker," which lies been decided this week in the
Court of King's Bench, has excited very considerable attention. It involves it question about the sale of offices, and has laid open some of the secrets of a most nefarious system. " Some great offender" in the background was alluded to by the Judges; and re learn from the Morning Chronicle, that the Duke of Wel. linglan has rapt only expressed himself, when applied to on the subject, willing to promote inquiry in this particular case, but has intimated, in a very unequivocal way, his disapprobation of the practice of jobbing in such matters. A correspondent informs the Minting Herald, "that we are now likely to be overrun with Portuguese Rats instead of Refugees, against the depredations of w:nicln he desires to caution the public. They are said to exceed in voraciousness even the large Norway rat, and have already done incalculable mischief by under- mining, a large store of valuables imported from the Brazils, and which the con:- lig/ices there will have to make good. They commit the depredations by stealth, gad in the most sly manner possible, and only make their appearance towards dusk, when they may occasionally lie seen skulking about the purlieus of the R•tyal Exchange and South Audloy Street." We suppose there may be a meaning in this, for the initiated.
The NWhitechapel Police Association, though only of a fortnight's standing, is found to work admirably. Mr. Walker, a police Magistrate in that quarter, states that outrages and robberies have rapidly diminished since its establishment.
Mr. Hunt the orator appeared at the Mansionhouse on Tuesday, to complain of the dangerous and disgraceful state of Blackfriars Bridge. He stated it to be almost impassable for holes and inequalities of various sorts ; and he farther gave it as his decided opinion that Mr. Alderman Waithman needed not to have gone as far as Reigate for the purpose of finding out had roads.
A great deal of snow fell on Tuesday night, in the metropolis and over the Country. The mails were, in consequence, rather later next day, and some slight accidents occurred. The weather during the whole of Tuesday was intensely Cold : several of the guards and coachmen were quite benumbed by it. By the accounts from France it seems to have been quite as severe there.
The snow has fallen most inopportunely for sportsmen. Among the rest, the Ministerial party assembled at Mr. Peel's mansion in Norfolk must, it is to be apprehended, betake themseives to the affairs of the State, for want of something Iltse to employ themselves about.—.Morning Hera da Mr. Cobbett has turned lecturer on the political diseases of the country ; and if his nostrums, in their new form, continue to attract as much attention as they did on Thursday nisrlit, he may contrive to live luxuriously on the badness of the times. He held forth in the Mechanics Institute to twelve hundred individuals, while as many more failed to procure admission ; and as each of those who were happy enough to rind entrance, paid a toll of a shilling, the lecturer must bare made a very pretty thing of it. He took up an exceedingly simple position: our distresses have but one cause—the late change in the value of the money ; and this he proved in a satisfactory way, by the authority of the Register. We were at first disposed to think that Cobbett tnight have been stimulated to try the effect of a little novelty. were it merely of manner—that the 601. which his auditory had subscribed for him might hare called for a slight display of that intellectual superiority to all other men which his modesty does not prevent lihn from daimt ing ; but a little reflection satisfied us of the value of his tactics. People paid to hear him on Thursday night, as they will pay to see the elephant at the Adelphi ; and Mr. Cobbett knows to() well how to drive a bargain, not to make the most of his personal attractions, without heightening their effect by coupling them with the results of his labour.
There was a meeting at Epsom, on Thursday, of the Surrey Anti-Slavery So. ciety. It was very poorly attended ; but Mr. Otway Cave and Mr. Henry Hunt were at their posts ; and while they recommended, by the usual arguments, the emancipation of the negroes, they did not fail, as usual, to bring the case of the "white slaves" their countryineu, before the meeting. These luminaries were, however, but lesser lights on this occasion. A Mr. Pownall darted the beams of his rhetoric into the darkest recesses of the question ; and after forcing all history, sacred and profane, all law, and all logic, to minister to his purpose, pro- ceeded, in a noble spirit of rivalry to Burke, to excite the seniibilities of his hearers, by flourishing a slave whip in their faces. No stroke of eloquence was ever more successful: it gave a character of insipidity to all that preceded and followed it.
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