Glasgow Courier. — 1863-05-21 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE DRAWING-ROOM AT ST JAMES'S. In the beautiful dresses worn on Saturday there seemed to be a great struggle between the power and influence of fashion against the despotism of precedent and tradition. The airy elegance of the modern balldress has in some unaccountable manner become engrafted on the severe at rtelmeas of the Court costume of the Georgian era. The lightest of fabrics sparkling with flowers, or gay with ribbon and brilliant velvet trimming, and apparently scarcely strong enough to support the gay rue/antis with which it is adorned, is a great contrast to the oil-fashioned " white satin petticoat" which is stereotyped in all the accounts of the Court dres,,s in former reigns; but so it is, and whatever may be log in magnificence has been more than compensated by elegance and variety. The enormous amplitude to which modern female costume has extended may have had some influence in inducing the change, and those who had the good fortune to witness the exquisite toilets displayed at St James's on Saturday could hardly be brought to acknowledge it to be a change for the wotse. lhere were some beautiful displays of lace too costly almost for calculation, comparatively speaking. One lady was pecnliar in weaving a black lace tunic, and a white lace flounce on the dress underneath it. Plain silks and silver  tissues were decidedly the mode for the trains ; the figured and brocaded silks were few and far between, and decidedly old fashioned. Velvet studded with jewels was much worn as a head-dress by the matrons of middle age, but flowers were the favourite coiffure of the younger Ides; these wreaths are high and full over the forehead, and are slight round the head. One lady wore a bunch of feathers over her forehead in the same way. Among the dresses of nearly two thousand ladies, representing a very large portion of the rank and wealth of the kingdom, and to whom expense is not of much consideration, there must necessarily be a general character running through the whole, but there were necessarily a few of such a peculiar and positive character as to be readily distinguished from the mass. One dress was trimmed with broad black and scarlet ribbons interlaced with each other on the bottom of the dress, round the borders of the ham, on the corsage, and even the headdress had the same style of ornament. It was, in every sense of the word, distingue. Another lady (we believe the Countess of Cork and Orrery) wore a dress of this kind, not KO prononee in effect, but more refined in its ensemble, and altogether it was one of the most effective costumes at Court. In colours, mauve and magenta seem to have had their day, and the present favourites appear to be a very light and bright green and dark blue; but these are not pre-eminent, they are only rather more prominent than others.—Observer.  1 144! .•  1,111,  ',,,,.  I mined  Junction  that  A very important bill, "to consolidate and amend the laws relating to procedure in the Court of See. sion, and in appeals to the House of Lords," has I been prepared and brought into the House of Commons by the Lord Advocate and Sir George Grey. The bill consists of 259 clauses, with relative ,chedides, and deals with—in Part r., The procedure ii actions to be instituted by summons ; Part rr., Jury procedure ; Part In., Procedure in actions to be instituted by bill; Part iv., Proof, diligence, sew; vice, and incidental procedure- Part v., new parties; Part vs., Procedure in reponing ; Part vii., Appeals from 'denier Pot Alit.. Suspensions and bill chamber procedui 'art IN., Slim:nary petition Part x., inner HMIS* procedure; Part xi., Judicial arrangements; and txii. Appeals to House of Lords. The bill extends to ninety printed pages.  A gentleman, name unknown, committed suicide last week in Lloyd's Hotel, Dundee, by swallowing laudanum. The property of Newton, near Perth, has just been acquired by Major Win. Drummond Mercer, for the price of £19,000. On Sunday afternoon the body of a boy, about three years of age, was found in Etalhousie lade, under the streetat Charlotte Place, Perth. Deceased had been missing since the sth inst. The Governors of George Watson's Hospital determined on Thursday, by a majority of 10 to 7, to give a subscription of £5O for the endowment of Morningside Established Church. Three swords have been found in a state of good preservation cave between the Truim and the Spey, which was the hiding place of Cluny Macpheraon, the grandfather of the present chief—for a considerable period after the rebellion of the '45. The Post Office and the Aberdeen and Inverness have come to an at. mails will be carried This will give an country north of Inver.cit and Thurso, where the than six hours.  ins  man, named William Ander" who was lately reported 'v, was found in the Cale. .tend Washing House. Ru; current; from the circumstance of violence are observable on ~eased. Inverness Advertiser. The ..._ _, of London has conferred the degrees LL. D. on David Lyell, University of St Andrews; D.Sc., AlexanderCrum Brown (chemistry), University of Edinburgh;