The ball, last night, at Carlisle-house, Soho, was most magnificent:  one hundred and fifty men subscribed, and five guineas each, and had each three tickets.  All the beauties in town were there, that is, of rank, for there was no bad company.  The Duke of Cumberland was there too; and the Hereditary Prince so pleased, and in such spirits, that he stayed till five in the morning.  He is gone to-day, heartily sorry to leave every thing but St. James’s and Leicester-house.  They lie to-night at Lord Abercorn’s,(448) at Witham, who does not step from his pedestal to meet them.  Lady Strafford said to him, “Soh! my lord, I hear your house is to be royal] v filled on Wednesday.”—­“And serenely,"(449) he replied, and closed his mouth again till next day.

Our politics have been as follow.  Last Friday the opposition moved for Wilkes’s complaint of breach of privilege to be heard to-day:  Grenville objected to it, and at last yielded, after receiving some smart raps from Charles Townshend and Sir George Saville.  On Tuesday the latter, and Sir William Meredith, proposed to put it off to the 13th of February, that Wilkes’s servant, the most material evidence might be here.  George Grenville again opposed it, was not supported, and yielded.  Afterwards Dowdeswell moved for a committee on the Cider-bill; and, at last, a committee was appointed for Tuesday next, with powers to report the grievances of the bill, and suggest amendments and redress, but with no authority to repeal it.  This the administration carried but by 167 to 125.  Indeed, many of their people were in the House of Lords, where the court triumphed still less.  They were upon the “Essay on Woman.”  Sandwich proposed two questions; 1st, that Wilkes was the author of it;(450) 2dly, to order the Black Rod to attach him.  It was much objected by the Dukes of Devonshire, Grafton, Newcastle, and even Richmond, that the first was not proved, and might affect him in the courts below.  Lord Mansfield tried to explain this away, and Lord Marchmont and Lord Temple had warm words.  At last Sandwich, artfully, to get something, if not all, agreed to melt both questions into one, which was accepted; and the vote passed, that it appearing Wilkes was the author, he should be taken into custody by the usher.  It appearing, was allowed to mean as far as appears.  Then a committee was appointed to search for precedents how to proceed on his being withdrawn.  That dirty dog Kidgel(451) had been summoned by the Duke of Grafton, but as they only went on the breach of privilege, he was not called.  The new club,(452) at the house that was the late Lord Waldegrave’s, in Albermarle-street, makes the ministry very uneasy; but they have worse grievances to apprehend!

Sir Robert Rich(453) is extremely angry with my nephew, the Bishop of Exeter, who, like his own and wife’s family, is tolerably warm.  They were talking together at St. James’s, when A’Court(454) came in, “There’s poor A’Court,” said the Bishop.  “Poor A,Court!” replied the Marshal, “I wish all those fellows that oppose the King were to be turned out of the army!” “I hope,” said the Bishop, “they will first turn all the old women out of it!”