Star.
London, England, 1828-12-27 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

D'spatehes were brought by a King's Messenger yes
terday evening, for the Earl of MERMEN, from the Right lion.
STRATTORD CANNING. The Messenger arrived at the Foreign Office
between five and six o'clock, and also brought dispatches for Sir
GIORGI MURRAY, from Sir F. ADAM, the Lord High Commis.
sinner of the lonian Islands. The Rid of ARNAUD,' after the
arrival of the dispatches, :proceeded to the residence of the Duke
of WELLINGTON, in Downing-street, and held a conference with his

Grace.
The KING'S Christmas bpunty was distributed 001
Monday and Tuesday to eight hundred aged men and women, at
the Almunry Office, Whitehall, by Mr. IJANSY, the Secretary to
the Lord High Almoner.
The Spanish Minister, on a Special Mis•ion, and Ce
French Charge d'Affaires. had interviews yesterday with the Earl
of AIIZRIM, at the Office of the Secretary of State for For kr
Affairs.
Mr. Secretary PEEL visited the Duke of WELLING-
ToN yesterday, at the Treasury.

FASIIION A BLE IN fELLIGENCE:
A R ltl V A LS.
• Viscountess Dudley avid Ward, in Bryanston.wpare; Viscountess
Keith and the Hon. Miss Elphinstone, in Piccadilly ; Countess
Ludulf, in Gloucester place ;Captain and Mrs. Herbert. in Allie•
mark-street ; Mr. and Mrs. Nesbitt, in George.street, Hanover-
square ; Mr. Francis Waits, in Gloucester•place ; Mr. and Mrs.
Forrester, in Grosvenor-place ; Mr. Leonard Currie, in Great
Cumberland place ; Miss Neville and Albs liagrath, in Park.lane;
Mr. and Mrs. Archdeacon, in Seyniour-street ; Madame Feick, in
Bryanston-square ; Sir John Harrington, Bart. in Berkeley-
square; Major Cope, in Gloucester place ; Mr. and Mrs. Manning,
in Piccadilly ; Mr. Peter Al•Evoy, in Cumberland-place ; Captain
Sutherland, in the Regent-street, from Malta ; Mr. Rolls, in My-
anston.square ; Mr. and Mrs. Jones, in Gro-venor.plate ; Lieut.
General Hopkins. in Gloucester-place ; Alarchioness of Hastings
and the Ladies Hastings, at the Burlington Hotel, Old Burlington
and Cork Streets, from Donnington Park, Leicesterstire ; Mr. and
Mrs. Gresley, at di to, from the Continent ; G. R. Rickets. Eq.
s
James Falk, aticlC. W. Tupper, Esqat Marshal Thompson's HUtel,
Cavendish-square, from Oxford ; J. P. Hart, Esq. at ditto, from
the Continent • Sr'i George Hill, Bart. at the Burlington Hotel,
fromlrelaod :Sir R. Ferguson, Bart. at ditto, from Ireland ; Wm.
Boyd, Esq. at ditto, from Ireland ; James Grelg, Esq. at ditto,
from Ireland ; O. Hill, );sq. at ditto, from Ireland ; the Countess
of Galloway and family, at Alivart's hotel, Lower Brook and
Davies Streets,from the North; T. L Parker, Esq. at ditto, from
Sussex ; Lord de Tabley, at ditto, from a tour; Capt. Clayton, at
Crawley's Hotel (late Cook's). Albemarle-street, from a tour;
Major and Mrs. Johnson, at Fenton's Hotel, St. Jamees-street,
from Paris; J. Prime, Esq. at ditto, from Wilts; lion.T. Flennes,
at the Royal Hotel, St. James's-street, froni Oxfordshire.
DE P A RTUR ES.
Sir E. C. Dering, Bart. and Mr. R. Dering, from Marshal
Thompaon's Hotel; Mrs Malkin and Alks Gobbing, from dittos
for their house in Henrietta-street ; 'Mrs. Brooke, from ditto, for
Suffolk; George Palmer, Esq. from ditto, for Waltham Cross;
the Hun. Robert Smith, M.P. from Whitehall-yard. for Bath;
Sir E. W. Stanhope, Bart. from Warren's Hotel, Regent-street,
for his rat, Hereford; General, Mrs. and Miss Harcourt, from
Crawley's Hotel (late Cook's), for Palk; Captain, Mrs. and Miss
Stewart, front ditto, on a tour; Count Colbert, from ditto, for
Surrey ; G. H. Lorgridge, Esq. from the British Hotel, Jermyn-
street, for Cambridge; G. Vandeleur, Esq. from Kirkham's Ho-
tel, Lower Brook street, fur Bath ; R. Davis, Esq. from ditto, for ,
Cambridge ; Lord Edward Paget, from the Burlington Hotel, for
Ireland ; the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Stowell, from ditto, for the North ;
J. Harvey, Esq. from ditto, for Ireland ; J. Booth, Esq. from ditto
for the North; Captain Henry Hope and family, from Alivart's
Hotel, fur Devonahire; the Rev. Davenport Bromley, from ditto,
for Suffolk.

THEATRES.

DRURI-LANE.
Another Christmas was welcomed with the customary
distinction at this Theatre last night. The Comedy of
Lovers' Yaws was performed amidst the laughter and
shouts of the galleries, and was succeeded by a new
e.ntomime' " invented and produced," as the bills have
it, by Mr. W. BARRYMORE, pad enti'led the Queen
Bee, or Harlequin and the Fairy Hive. The Pantomime
opens with a splendid scene in the Honeycomb palace,
.here all the subjects of her stinging Majesty. the
Queen Bee, are t lying their odoriferous labours.—
Her Nlajesty is offended at the conduct of a wor-
thy Gentleman, Mi. Drone, a winged swindler, who,
in defiance of political economy, is an inordMire
consumer, and no producer. lie is seized, deprived of
his tail and wine (an indirect attack upon the kite-
Hying system) and sent adtilt 1. to roam the flowers of
Botany." Fortune now pays the Queen Bee a visit, f-r
tie purpose of e.esi.ing means for the recovery. of a
magic sword, which she had long before presented to
Hai lequ n, who has latterly been incapacitated from
using it, in consequence r f ex• rerne obesity, .. brought
on by idleness and double X." The Queen Bee dis-
patches ore of her attendants to the village, where the
old piebald hero sesides, with instructions to assist in the
recovery of the :wind. o.d Harlequin—" four single
Gentlemen rolled into' ne"—now makes his appearance.
His whole family have become as unwiel,iy as elephants,
but they all imagine that they are exceedingly agile,
and, assisted by them, the .. on of flesh" retains pos.
session of the sword. By a d splay of its powers he
hops. to *it' the favour if .'Margery, the village school-
mi •tre.s, and idle, wards Columbine; but fails, as her
affections are placed on the son of the lariJed H it lequir.
TI is youth, aided by his mistress, breaks into old
Harlequin's house to possess themselves of the sword.
They are taken in the minim., and abait to be trans-,
feired to il.e county gaol, when the Queen Bee appears,
and the work of transformation begins. The superan-
nuated Harlequin becomes Pantaloon; his son sets up
tot himself as Hai lequin ; Margery is metamorphosed
into Columbine; and old Haileqiiin's footman and
buler stands torth a. Clown. The usual pursuit then
; kes place, and aft .r encountering innumerable dif •
s, Harlequin and Columbine are united by the
Queen Bet in the Temple of Industry.
11 appears to us that the inventive faculty so neces-
sary in the to, et a clever pantomime has been
for some time on the wane s to use a commercial
pl.ra.e, the production which We last night witnessed
dr.e. ni.t.ju.tity us in saling that it is at present " look-
ing up? Ue are no longer presented with those
bteange combinations with which the ludicrous fancy
of Joa GRIMALDI used. to enrich the scene. He was
a sort r,f SHARMA RR in his way; he exhausted na-
oral monsters, and then S' imagined
.new." Franken-
stein wa. no hung to him. Place hurl in any wale.
house, and he soon produced a creature that you
would have swo n was tudieeitous to the soil. Again,
what various uses did he not make of t' e pa•sing
'talons And propensities of the day. When he turned
one of ths in into ridicule, he became a living epigram,
so terse and pointed as to set translation entirely
a; defies cc. To these escellencies there are few
approximations in the &resent pantomime. It is at
s d as must of asepautoosioses vi4ich we have seen g