PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

THE Queen and the Royal Family came to town from
Windsor on the 28th ult. for the season. On the following
day the Prince and Princess of Prussia, with the
Princess Louisa and Prince Frederick William, arrived
at Buckingham Palace.

On the 7th, her Majesty gave a state ball, to which
upwards of two thousand persons were invited. The
Queen opened the dancing with the Prince of Prussia
for her partner in a quadrille, Prince Albert and the
Princess of Prussia vis-à-vis. After a state supper in
the principal dining-room, the Queen returned to the
ball-room, and the dancing was kept up till two in the
morning; Highland reels being performed to the spiriting
music of  "Mr. Mackay, her Majesty's piper."

The Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg, Prince
Leiningen, and the Duke of Wurtemberg and suite, arrived
in London on the 17th, on a visit to the Queen at
Buckingham Palace. The Queen gave a state ball on
the 19th to a most brilliant court, the invitations
exceeding 2100. On the 22nd the Court left town for the
Isle of Wight. Besides her Majesty, Prince Albert, and
the royal family, the Prince and Princess of Prussia,
Prince Frederick William and the Princess Louisa of
Prussia, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg Gotha,
and Duke Ernest of Wurtemberg, accompanied the
Queen as her Majesty's guests at Osborne.

Sir Andries Stockenström, Mr. Fairbairn's colleague,
representing the colony of the Cape of Good Hope as
claimants of justice from the Imperial Government,
arrived in London on the 16th.

Prince Albert has contributed the sum of £25 in aid
of the subscription intended as a provision for the
declining years of Mrs. Ward, the daughter of Lord
Nelson.

The Siécle has the following paragraph in reference to
Abd-el-Kader. "A short time since a detachment of
the 7th Chasseurs were sent to the garrison of Amboise,
for the purpose of escorting Abd-el-Kader in the
promenade which the Emir has been authorised to make
in the country surrounding his place of confinement. On
Tuesday, for the first time since his arrival at Amboise,
(says the Progrés d'Indre-et-Loire,) the Emir left the
château. His Highness rode in a small carriage, drawn
by two white horses, and was escorted by sixteen
chasseurs in full uniform. The party left about three o'clock,
drove as far as Chennonceaux, and returned to the
château at seven o'clock."

A blind student gained one of the principal prizes for
Greek at a recent examination in the University of
Edinburgh. He was a native of Dunkeld, and had used
in his studies extracts from the books he was examined
in, printed in raised characters, which he traced with
his fingers.

Lord Bloomfield, now Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of St. Petersburg,
is appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Court of Berlin; Sir George Hamilton
Seymour, G.C.B., now Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Court of Lisbon, is appointed
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at
the Court of St. Petersburg; and Sir Richard Pakenham,
K.C.B., sometime Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to the United States of America,
is to be Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
at the Court of Lisbon.

Mr. Rutherford, late Lord-Advocate of Scotland, now
a Judge of the Supreme Court, has been sworn in a
member of the Privy Council.

At a public meeting at the Council-Hall, Sheffield, it
has been resolved, "That Ebenezer Elliott's long,
zealous, and successful advocacy of free-trade, and his
great genius as a poet, deserve to be publicly acknowledged
by the erection of a monument to his memory."
A subscription has accordingly been entered into, and
£230 has been already subscribed, chiefly in Sheffield.

The Duke of Northumberland has just set a very
praiseworthy example of liberality to his brother peers.
Arrangements have been made for admitting the public
to a sight of Northumberland and Sion Houses during
the course of the Exhibition.

Sir M. Shaw Stewart has presented a park to the
town council of Greenock, in trust for the use of the
inhabitants.

Obituary of Notable persons

ADMIRAL SIR EDWARD CODRINGTON, G.C.B., died on the 28th
ult., at his house in Eaton-square, in his 82nd year.

THE COUNTESS OF RADNOR died on the 27th ult., at Lord
Radnor's Seat, Coleshill, Berks.

THE EARL OF COTTENHAM, late Lord High Chancellor of
England, whose retirement from public life was so recent,
died at Pietra Santa, in the Duchy of Lucca, on the 29th ult., in
the 71st year of his age.

MRS. ALEXANDER LEE, formerly Mrs. Waylett, the well-known
actress and singer, died on the 26th, after a painful illness of
seven years' duration.

THE EARL OF BANTRY died at Glengariff Lodge on the 2nd
inst., in his 84th year.

THOMAS HARRISON, Esq., one of the Commissioners of the
Board of Inland Revenue, died on the 6th inst., at his house
in Alpha-place, Regents'-park, after a long and painful illness.

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF LEUCHTENBERG
died at Munich on the 13th inst., in her 63rd year. She was
daughter to King Maximilian, of Bavaria, by his first marriage
with a princess of Darmstadt.

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. MORISON, K.C.B., M.P. for the
burghs of Clackmannan and Kinross, died on the 15th inst., in
Saville-row.

VISCOUNT STRATHALLAN died at Castle Strathallan, in
Perthshire, on the 14th inst., in the 85th year of his age. He was
restored in 1824 to the honours of bis family, which had been
forfeited after the battle of Culloden. He was one of the
representative peers of Scotland.

COLONEL THE HON. EDWARD CADOGAN died on the 14th inst.
at Pau, in the department of the Pyrenees, in the 62nd year of
his age. He was brother to Earl Cadogan.

COLONEL HUGH MITCHELL, Second Colonel Commandant of
the Woolwich division of Royal Marines, died at the Royal
Marine Barracks, after a very short illness.

COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES

THE news from the Cape of Good Hope is not yet so hopeful as last month's accounts had led us to expect.

The insurgent Kaffirs still hold Sir Harry Smith in check. Fresh troops, and two sub-commissioners, are
going out to help: and the prospect in respect of expenditure becomes more and more serious. Meanwhile
Colonial questions and complaints have occupied some part of the time of the House of Commons
during the past month, but without much promise of any useful result. The wrong or the remedy does not
really lie with any particular colonial minister, but with the system which every minister finds in operation,
and, whatever his own views may be, is more or less obliged to continue. Colonial reform means nothing
less than an entire re-constitution of the system, as well as the office, by which Colonial affairs are now
administered; and this is what will have to be effected before many more years are over.

The Bombay Mail of the 17th of April brings no
intelligence of moment. The Governor-General was on
his way to Simla. Rumours were afloat of an intended
expedition against the Affreedies. Captain Granthan, of
the 98th Foot, who was so dreadfully wounded by a set
of Affreedie marauders in the end of February, died at