The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-02-27 00:00:00

FASHIONABLE INrELLICENCR.

The DukeOf Gloucester will have • grand dinner party this day,
and another to-itiorrow, at Gloucester House.
The 31arquis of Cholmomicley had a dinner party yesterday, at
Cholmondeley House, Piccadilly.
Lord P•ealey entertained a distinguished party at dinner yester-
day, at his house in Great George-street, Westminster.
Lord King had a dinner party ycatedray, at his house in Dover-
street.

Lord Exmouth arrived in mom yesterday, fropt his seat in Do-
van.hire.

The Lord Advocate for Scotland, Sir Wm. Rae, Lady Rae, and
Visa Rae, arrived yesterday at the Waterloo Hotel, Jetinyn-atreet,
from Scotland.

Capt. Chalairk arrived yesterday at the British Hotel, Jermyn-
strict, from Tunbridge Wills.
Edward Foley, Eyq. and C. Hamilton, Esq. have arrived a
3livart's Hotel, Lower Itrook.street, from a tour.
Arrivals at Kirkham'!" Hotel, laower Brook-street:—Bamness
de Rolle, from her seat, in Surrey; Ashton, Esq., from •
tour. Sir 31roitague Choluiley, Ban. has left ditto for his
scat near Lincoln.
Arrivals at the Bath lintel, Arlington-street :—Mr. and Mrs.
Vernon, front a tour; Col. and 31rs. Cassidy and family, from
Irela..d. Departures front ditto :—Lord Northesk and Mr.
Long, for their seat in flatus; Mr. and Mn.s Staples, fur the
North; Mr. and 3lrs. lthetscman, for Bath.
Arrivals at the St. Peteniburgh Hotel, Dover-street:—Morgan
Lewis, Esq. and family, front their seat in Wales; Alesand.r
Hugh Donaldion' Ettli. Mrs. Donaldson, and family, from their
seat in Scotland; Edward Wivhart Duntiat, Esq. and Capt. Hay,
front the Continent; Capt. Buchanan, from Southampton; and
the Misses Du Puy, front ditto.

MASQUERADE AND FANCY-DRESS BALL.
This, like alma everything else, except the sturdy mo-
ralities and honest merry'-makings of old English life, is
an invention of exotic origin. .Masquerades—fancy-dress
balls—omelettes, 4ouffltlei, and macaroni, are the production
of warmer and more voluptuous climates. It is very
rarely that a masquerade with us is anything more or less
thin a scene of confusion, dishonesty, and dishonour,—
where men of very equivocal character, and women whose
character's are not at all equivocal, are mixed and mingled
in the " most admired disorder," amidst all sorts of uproar,
suspicion, and boisterous revelry, for some half-a-dozen
hours, to the manifest detriment of their pockets and their
constitutions, but not at all to the injury of their morals or
their fame. Masks, which were originally meant as a dis-
guise beneath which free play might be given to witty satire,
good-natured severity, and innocent hoaxing, are now
very necessary screens for the questionable faces which
are concealed behind them. Persons of distinction—
ladies of rank and character, retreat from this kind
of amusement, as if it were something irremediably
polluting. Perhaps their apprehensions are a little too
extravagant, and yet it must bo confessed they have no
slight justification. In those countries where they were
once a part of the ordinary business of life, Masquerades
hate fallen into discredit and disuse. In Italy they have
given way to pursuits of a loftier nature, to dark and fear-
ful meditations upon past sufferings and future vengeance.
The Piazza of St. Marc is no longer thronged with " tipsy
mirth and revelry. ;" the Toledo at Naples is no longer
crowded for days in succession with Haunting idlers, in
gay disguises, "all plumed like estriches," and buoyant
with the spirit of enjoyment. b'rance and Spain were never
mastpleing countries: the first is much too vain and the
last is too proud to enter into the feeling and spirit of the
thing. England has always been too moral to countenance an
amusement which lends itself so easily to the worst pas-
sions; and too high spirited to court pleasure in any but
its frankest and manliest shapes. Still, to a well-consti-
tuted mind, a masquerade, uncongenial as it is to the no-
tional character of Englishmen, is not without its sources
of gratification. When well regulated, like that of last
nie,ht, it may be converted into matter of great amusement.
We attended it an early boar, and feel ourselves called upon
to praise, in no measured terms, those to whom its manage-
ment was entrusted. Every thing was provided which
could excite the dull or delight the enthusiastic. Music,
till it palled upon the ear—lights, that dazzled the eye
from their brilliancy and numb er—a supper which would
have struck Camillus with horror, and filled Ileliogaba-
lus with envy—together with dancing, masking, revelling,
and hoaxing, filled up the interval between ten o'clock
at night and six o'clock in the morning, so as to leave
no moment vacant of some sort of enjoyment. The
characters were very numerous, and some of them were
kept up with a very uncommon spirit. We were delighted
with a Mull Flaggont who seemed " native, and to the
the manner born." She smelt of a suttling-house, and
talked ins dialect which could have been learned nowhere
but in a camp. We heard it whispered that a dashing
Lieutenant in the Guards was the person who maintained this,
character. There were Giµdes enough to devastate all the
hen-roosts in the country. One pretty little Bc.hentian deli-
vered her oracles with as much authority, though with less
" extatic fury," than any Pythian priestess of antiquity.
We trembled for her, lest some vigilant police magistrate
should bring her within the Vagrant Act. The best cha-
racter of the evening was the /keit himself. Ile was not,
like Milton's creation, " an archangel ruined ;" nor was
lie " in shape and gesture proudly eminent," but a smug
little fellow, who whisked about his tail, and spouted his
fire to the serene delight of the virtuous, and the great
terror of the wicked. Ile attacked a Lawyer and a Me-
thorlia Preacher with a most ferocious glee, to the irrepres-
sible joy of the company ; for the lawyer had been very
pragmatical, and the preacher very sententious. They
were, as they ought to be, worsted in the contest, and the
Devil went on his way, " seeking whom he might de-
vour." There was a whole tribe of Irish Ilaymakers
who were very noisy and insolent; and a congregation of
Quakers, who were very silent and silly—a /Ifugelaten,
who (having met her lover) was all smiles, and a Thalia, who
(having met with au accident to her dress) was all tears.
There were clerks from the City with mustachios and
long spurs—actors who seemed to have lost their speech—
Jews who ate ham for supper—'l'urks drunk with bad
port—and a thousand other assumptions of character, for
which the &scanners hail no one claim except their assump-
tins. In the earlier part of the evening we were enter-
tained with divers performances on the tight-rope, by
a juvenile Mail. Saqui (a Miss Clarke, we believe),
who was extremely clever, and promises to ascend the
highest flights of her profession. This is a sort of " low
sublime" for a female, but it is surprising, and that is
all the public wants. Dr. Johnson says somewhere,
that a rope-dancer ought to possess all the cardinal
virtues ;—if this be true, and the virtues are in any pro-
portion to the ability, little Miss Clarke promises to be the
most virtuous old lady (if she does not break her neck
before she grows old) that ever lived. There were some
tricks of juggling which we could not well see, but which
were considerably applauded. 'The suppers, under the
direction of Mr. Jarrin, of Bond-street, were plentiful and
gtxxl, and with this part of the entertainment no one could
reasonably quarrel. Altogether there was a great deal of
i mirth mixed up with a good deal of absurdity.

It is said in the fashionable circles, that Lord John
' Thynne wilt lead to the hymeneal altar, on Tuesday next,
tl:c beautiful and accomplished Miss leresford, niece to
Mrs. George Byng.
It appears that a new Insurance Company, under the
controul of Mr. Rothschild, will be shortly established.
It is divided into shares of tool. each, which are, we be-
lieve, all disposed of.
In the Court of Chancery yesterday the Lord Chancellor
observed, that he attended ildirken Assil:es at York, and
only obtained one Ink!
OXFOXII ELLCTION.—The death of Mr. Fane, one of
the Members of Tarliament for this county, having °cm-
sioned a vacancy in its representation, a meeting of the
freeholders of this County was convened on lirednesday at
the Town Hall, Oxford, by the High Sheriff, when Mr.
Fans, the son of the late Member, was proposed, and no
opposition appearing, was declared duly elected. Sir Geo.
Davliwood had intimated an intention of canvassing the
counts', but on hearing that Mr. Fane intended proposing
himself, he very handsomely declined in his favour. The
chairing of the new Member took place on Wednesday
evening.

Thu—rsday an explosion took place in Burraton Colliery,
by which one man was killed, and a boy seriously hurt.
AI.aIMING )Far.—Yesterday evening at about six
o'clock, a. most alarming fire broke out in the extensive ware-
house of Messrs. Pickford and Co., near the biotin of the Regent's
Canal, in the City-road, and which raged with such fury as to
threaten destruction to the surrounding warehouses, several of
which contained a great quantity of valuable property. The arrival
of the firemen, however, put a stop to the progress of the devouring
dement ; and it was at length, by their exertions, got under, but
not until the whole of the extensive warehouses of Messrs. Pickford
and Co. were entirely condo:nal. We did not hear how the tits
originated.

IP6IinGAr iIVTELLIGENCE.