side and round the neck with a full swansdown fur, and negligently confined in the centre of the bosom. An imperial helmet cap, composed of blue velvet, ornamented with a bandeau and beads; a full white ostrich feather, waving towards one side. Neck. lace and fancy ear-rings of pearl or of the blue satin bead. Slippers of blue velvet or kid, with silver clasps or small buckle. Gloves of primrose kid. (Ackermann's Repository.)

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

ENGLAND. Very little wheat yet sown, and, where the seed has been put in, the operation has been badly performed from the wetness of the land. Scarcely any young wheats have yet appeared above ground, excepting in those few districts where very early sowing is practised. The backwardness of the season has been universal, extending to every branch of husbandry. Clover seed and beans still abroad, receiving considerable injury, and not improbably part of the latter may remain abroad until the return of bean setting. Some oats and barley, still out, must be harvested by the hogs. The above account refers chiefly to our earliest and best tilled counties; in the north, of course, the harvest has been still more backward, expensive, and embarrassing; and, as it seems scarcely practicable to complete the required breadth of autumnal wheat-sowing, no doubt but recourse will be had to spring wheat, hitherto so successful, to an unusual extent in the ensuing year. Garden seeds have generally failed. Boiling pease rise but indifferently in Suffolk. Much corn is still out in the fen counties. The great hurry in the farmers of thrashing and sending wheat to market is abated, or rather at an end,

SCOTLAND. At the beginning of the month a considerable number of fields, principally after beans and pease, remained to be sown with wheat, and the weather being favourable, the opportunity of bringing that business to a favourable conclusion was eagerly embraced by every individual concerned in the matter. Happily the most of farmers got what they intended sown, in decent order, previous to the 8th, as about that period the weather broke, and nothing of any consequence could have been done since, on account of the ground, especially the clays, being completely saturated by frequent very heavy rains. From the same cause, the ploughing of white stubbles has been considerably retarded ; but, at this season of the year, that is a subject of no great importance. The injury such rains do to turnip stock is a matter of higher concern, as it is well known that the feeding of sheep, in particular, is greatly impeded by a continuance of cold and rainy weather. Corn markets have been freely supplied of late, without, however, any appearance of a decline in prices. As the present high prices must, in a great measure, be owing to the deficiency of crops in other quarters, it is impossible to say whether they have seen their height; but one thing is certain-dear grain at so early a period of the season, will have the necessary effect of compelling people to be economists, by which a sufficiency may be reserved for the summer. Such a remedy is certainly harsh, and must be severely felt by many; nevertheless it is evidently better than that the country should be so completely exhausted, as it was at the beginning of last harvest, when a single peck of meal could not be

the country.

DECEMBER.

1st.-OPENING OF PARLIAMENT. -Soon after twelve o'clock yesterday morning the Prince Regent proceeded from Carlton-house to St James's Palace, and about one set out from thence in his Majesty's state coach, through St James's Park, drawn by the cream-coloured horses, and attended precisely as the king used to be. The draft from the life guards for service in Spain having prevented that corps from furnishing the usual number of guards of honour, the deficiency was made up by the royal

Norroy.

for this reason also kept by the 10th hussars, now under orders to proceed with the 15th and 18th to Spain, as a brigade, under the command of Major-General Charles Stewart.

Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales had her seat prepared for her upon the woolsack, immediately under the throne. The Prince Regent wore the robes of the king, as exercising the functions of majesty. Being higher in rank than Prince of Wales, and lower than the king, his royal highness wore a cocked hat, the crown and the coronet of the Prince of Wales, the sword of state and cap of maintenance being borne before him in the procession from the coach-door to the prince's chamber, and from thence to the house in the following order :

Serjeants at Arms, two and two. Black Rod.

Earl Marshal of Eng.

land, with his Gold
Staff, (Duke of Nor-
folk.)

Sword of State, borne by

Serjeants at Arms, two and two. Garter.

Deputy Great Chamberlain, with his Wand;

In the Presence Chamber the Prince Regent robed, and his train was borne by the Master of the Robes and two Pages of Honour. He proceeded into the House of Lords, where, being seated on the throne, the Deputy

Great Chamberlain of England, Lord Gwydir, and Black Rod kneeling on one knee upon the lower step of the throne, his Royal Highness bowed to the Chamberlain, in token of his pleasure, when the Black Rod pro

ceeded to command the attendance of the House of Commons; and introducing the Speaker and the other members to the House of Lords, according to the usual ceremonial, his Royal Highness delivered a most gracious speech from the throne.

Upon no former occasion were the streets more crowded, though the weather was unfavourable.

2d.-On Wednesday se'ennight, in the evening, as Mr Wiggin, miller, of Ardington, near Bridgnorth, was returning from Wolverhampton market, he was shot and mortally wound ed by some miscreant, within a mile of his own house. It is supposed that his horse took fright at the discharge of the piece, and galloped to the turnpike, where Mr Wiggin fell off, and expired in about three quarters of an hour. The ball had passed through his body just below the heart. Pursuit was immediately made after the murderer, and two suspicious persons are in custody.

On Friday week, a young woman, in crossing the bridge of Dee, was met about the centre of the arch by a horse and cart. At the instant of her passing them, something startled the horse, and he sprung towards the side of the bridge on which she stood. Seeing the impossibility of escape, she leaped on the parapet; in making this exertion, however, she lost her balance, and was precipitated into the river from the tremendous height of this bridge, about 50 feet. A boat in stantly put out; when, wonderful to relate, she was taken up in life, and is restored to her usual health.

The following singular circumstance took place on the entrance of the French into Moscow:-The Archbishop, who was in advanced age, whose character was held in the highest veneration, and who had com

posed a prayer which was much admired, was in the act of performing divine service, when he was informed that the enemy had entered the city. He paused for a moment, crossed himself, and immediately expired.

3d.-HUDDERSFIELD.-The spirit of Luddism, which was thought to be extinct, has again appeared and raged with more than usual violence. Last Sunday night, about a quarter past nine o'clock, a number of men armed with pistols or short guns, one of them with the lower part of his face covered with a black handkerchief, entered the house of Mr W. Walker, of Newhall, near Huddersfield, cloth manufacturer; and after taking from him a gun, a pistol, and powder-horn, demanded his money, and obtained from him about 151. in notes, the whole of which they offered to return him except one, if he would give them a

guinea in gold: not being aware of this decoy, he took out a small purse, containing five guineas, which they immediately seized, and took all the gold, without returning the notes. The chief then proceeded to ransack his papers, while others of the party presented their pieces at Mr Walker, and after cautioning the family, on pain of death, not to quit the house for two hours after, they departed.

The same gang, on the same night, proceeded to the house of a shopkeeper at Fartown, from whom they took a gun, with silver and notes to the amount of 201. together with a pair of silver tea-tongs, and two silver tea-spoons; not content with this booty, they went into the cellar, and seized a bottle of rum and some provisions. From thence they went to a farmer's house near Fixby; four men entered, two of them armed with blunderbusses, a third with a gun, and the other with a pistol; their

first demand was for arms, but on being told that the family had neither arms nor money, they ordered "Enoch, Captain, Serjeant, and Hatchetmen, to enter;" but on promising to find them some money, they retired at the word of command. Here they received 51. They next proceeded to the house of Mr James Brook of Bracken-hall, in Fartown, where, after conducting them selves in an outrageous manner, they took his watch, a pound-note, and four shillings in silver. From thence they marched to John Wood's, where, after breaking the door and windows, and rummaging the house, they called over the numbers from one to nine, and went away. They then went to the house of Mr William Radcliffe, at Woodside, where they obtained 111. 10s. 6d. six guineas in gold, and between two and three pounds in silver, a quantity of tea, sugar, liquors, and plate. Their last visit was to the house of Moses Ball, Gilly Royd, which they plundered of two pounds in silver.

4th.-LONDON.-The metropolis was this morning thrown into great joy, by the arrival of Captain Drury from the Baltic, with dispatches from Count Rosen, governor of Stockholm, transmitted by Admiral Hope to the Admiralty, containing the substance of various actions between the Russians and the enemy, in which the Russians had been completely successful, and the destruction of the French very great.

7th. On Tuesday last, a man was apprehended in St Mary's Wynd, Edinburgh, with a large quantity of base coin in his possession. Upon information being given to the Police-office, the Lieutenant, with some of his attendants, repaired to the spot. On knocking at the door, admittance

was refused, and the fellow, taking alarm, leaped from a room window into a neighbouring yard, where he was taken, with a large quantity of leaden penny pieces and base shillings in his possession. He was recognised to be an old offender of the name of Watson, who had been formerly banished from the county of Edinburgh. A man of the name of Cowan, and his wife, have also been apprehended for a similar offence.

THE KING'S HEALTH-On Sunday last the following bulletin was shewn at St James's Palace :—

"Windsor Castle, Dec. 6, 1812. "Since the last monthly report, his majesty has remained free from any considerable degree of excitement."

(Signed by five physicians.) COMMERCE.-Comparative view of the trade in Scotland in the half-year ended the 5th of July 1812, and in the corresponding part of the year 1811:

Official value of the imports into
Scotland in the half-year ended
5th July 1811, L.1,168,331 11
Ditto in the half-year end-
ed 5th July 1812,

5

1,283,524 14 7

L.115,203 3 2

Excess in 1812, Official value of the exports from Scotland in the half-year ended 5th July 1811, L.1,821,495 7 Ditto in the half-year ended 5th July 1812, 2,695,671 9 3

L.874,176 2

1

9th. COURT OF KING'S BENCH. -THE EXAMINER.-This morning, at a very early hour, all the avenues leading to the court were crowded beyond example, and all the exertions of the officers and constables could not prevent the crowd of persons rushing forward to witness this longexpected and interesting trial. It was

with the greatest difficulty, and after much delay, a passage could be made for the admission of Lord Ellenborough and the king's counsel; at length the cause of "The King v. John and Leigh Hunt" was called on, and a special jury sworn. The pleadings being opened by Mr Richardson, as junior counsel, for the prosecution, the Solicitor-General stated this to be an information against the defendants as the printers and pub lishers of a Sunday newspaper, called The Examiner, for a gross, scanda lous, and malicious libel on his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, published on the 22d March last. The libel was conveyed in these terms after some prefatory observations, "In short, that this delightful, blissful, wise, pleasurable, honourable, virtuous, true, and immortal Prince, was a violater of his word, a libertine over head and ears in debt and disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers and demireps, a man who had just closed half a century without one single claim on the gratitude of his country or the respect of posterity."-The learned Solicitor-General's address was short, leaving it to the good sense and understanding of the jury to say, whether this was not a most infamous and malignant libel.

The publication being proved, and the libel read,

Mr Brougham, as counsel for the defendants, made an energetic address to the jury, full of sound and signifying nothing,

The Solicitor-General spoke at some length in reply; and the learned judge having summed up in very strong and forceable terms, the jury retired for about a quarter of an hour, and then brought in a verdict of Guilty against both defendants.

CRIM. CON.-DUNDAS, ESQ. v. LORD SEMPILL.-The Solicitor-General said, the plaintiff in this case was a gentleman of Edinburgh, who resi ded occasionally in Sweden, where he had purchased some property. The defendant was a nobleman, considerably advanced in life, the representative of an ancient and respectable family, also of Scotland, who by deep intrigue had succeeded in alienating from the plaintiff the affections of a beautiful and accomplished wife, who, till seduced by the arts of the defendant, had been esteemed a pattern for other wives in her rank in society. That he was actually at this moment living with her in a state of adultery. There would, this day, be no defence set up on the part of the defendant ; but the jury, after hearing the evidence that would be laid before them, would not fail in giving to the plaintiff such a compensation in damages as should shew that the plaintiff had been a kind and affectionate husband, and that his wife had not, till the moment the learned counsel had been talking of, forfeited the character of a kind and affectionate wife.

It was stated, that the plaintiff possessed property in Sweden, of which country he was a nobleman; that his wife and he had been in the use of visiting that country every year, for the sake of looking after their affairs there; that, for the last two years, the plaintiff had gone by himself, leaving his wife behind him, on account of the hostilities between the two countries; that the plaintiff went to Sweden, as usual, in June last, leaving his wife at Wickham, under the protection of her sister; but on the plaintiff returning to this country, unexpectedly, in September, on his going to Mordaunt's hotel, in Dean-street, Soho, where he had for