ous.

swer, as we have already said, appears to than it could have had under any other us to be that Liberalism will be immensely circumstances. The Daily Telegraph the reinforced, and clericalism and revolution- other day published a letter from its Prusary socialism discouraged to a correspond- sian correspondent on this subject which ing extent. The reasons of this are obvi- seemed to us to have about it a good deal In old times it was a possible, and of the truth and instructiveness of a clever indeed the common, not to say the univer- exaggeration. It made a great deal among sal course, that nations should be estab- other things of the assertion (which we relished upon clerical principles and grow ceived with considerable doubt) that Gerup under clerical auspices. How far this man boys and youths never play, but only is from being the case, either with regard harden their muscles and expand their to modern Germany or modern Italy, it is chests upon strictly utilitarian principles needless to say. The debate on the Jesuits at scientifically devised gymnastic schools. shows the true state of the case with super- Of course, one takes such a fancy for what abundant clearness. It is impossible to it is worth, but there can be no doubt at read it without seeing the strongest deter- all of the grave, solid, earnest character of mination on the part of the Germans that, the nation; of their thorough and invinciwhatever else they may or may not be, ble determination to get what they, want, whether or not they call themselves Roman or of their faith in the efficacy of the means Catholics, they will not be priestridden, by which it can be got. They want money they will be the masters of the clergy, and and money's worth; they want the various not their servants. If, however, a nation arts of life; they want political power and is not to be clerical, it must in these days what belongs to it; and they believe in be essentially and radically liberal. No the possibility of getting what they want nation ever has been, and it is difficult to by education, by organization - in a word, see how any nation ever could be, organ- by taking trouble. This is, we think, the ized on the principles of revclutionary gist of Liberalism. It is a very grave, socialism. A nation of any size must con- rather cold, and exceedingly sturdy creed, tain numerous classes of inhabitants. They and, thanks to Prince Bismarck and what must be engaged upon an infinite variety he represents, it has done a good deal of undertakings, and this vigorous diversi- towards getting its foot on the neck of the fied activity, subject only to rules made by more romantic and softer creeds which common consent, is as essentially unsocial- stand on each side of it. istic as it is essentially unclerical. If a great mass of people are not to be kept together by a common religious faith and subjection to a class connected with the clergy, they must be kept together by trade, by common interest in the administration of common affairs, by all the machinery of modern life and activity, and this is Liberalism. A society can be imagined, no doubt, in which a general organization might be framed so contrived as to secure for every one a rateable proportion of the enjoyments of life, and to prevent any one from getting more; but nothing of the kind has ever been established. If it were, it would do away altogether with nations and national life as we understand them. It is on this ground mainly that it appears to us that the establishment of two great nations, one of them by far the strongest in the whole world, or, at all events, in Europe, is the greatest triumph for Liberalism in the broad sense of the word which has occurred in this or any other generation.

The special character and position of the Prussians, under whose auspices Germany has become a nation, gives the matter far greater weight and importance

From The Leisure Hour. BEARDS.

"When the piercing north comes thundering forth,
Let a barren face beware;

For a trick it will find, with a razor of wind,
To shave a face that's bare."

FEW fashions have been so capricious as
those connected with the hair of men's
faces, and if we look back for several ages
we shall find that the custom of shaving
has continually been introduced and as
frequently been discontinued. Alexander
the Great before an engagement command-
ed Parmenio to have all his soldiers shaved,
and gave as his reason that a long beard af-
fords a handle for the enemy.
We sup-
pose that the old Normans held the same
view of the inconvenience of a beard, for
they shaved close, and deceived their ene-
mies. Harold's spies reported that Wil-
liam the Conqueror's army was composed
not of soldiers but of priests. After the
Conquest, however, when the Normans
settled in England, they began to wear
beards, and, in order to make a distinction

between them, orders were given that the | I. are full of amusing allusions to the varieEnglish should shave.

If we look at the portraits of our kings we shall find that each of them adopted a special fashion of his own. Henry I. wore a beard trimmed round, and Richard Coeur de Lion a short beard. Henry III. shaved, but his son, Edward I., wore a curled beard. There is a touching story of Edward II. in his misery which illustrates our subject. When he was at Carnarvon, Maltravers ordered the king to be shaven with dirty cold water, at which he burst into tears, and exclaimed, "Here at least is warm water on my cheek, whether you will

or no."

ties of fashions in beards. We learn from them what were the various styles adopted by different wearers, as the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian cuts, the new, old, gentleman's, common, court, and country cuts. Stubbs, in his "Anatomie of Abuses," says that the barber will ask "whether you will be cut to look terrible to your enemy or amiable to your friend, grim and stern in countenance, or pleasant and demure." The worthy old clergyman, William Harrison, to whom we owe our chief knowledge of the state of this country in the sixteenth century, gives the following account of the varieties of beards in his description of Edward III. wore a noble beard, but England: -"Some are shaven from the Richard the Second's was short. During chin like those of Turks, not a few cut the fourteenth century, close shaving be- short like to the beard of the Marques came prevalent with young men, and the Otto, some made round like a rubbing old men wore forked beards, as Chaucer brush, others with a pique devant, (oh! describes the merchant: "A merchant was fine fashion!) or now and then suffered to there with a forked beard." Henry IV. grow long, the barbers being growen to wore a beard, but Henry V., Henry VI., be so cunning in this behalfe as the tailors. and Edward IV. all shaved. Henry VIII. And therefore if a man have a leane and shaved until he heard that Francis I. of streight face a Marquesse Ottons cut will France wore a beard, and then he allowed | make it broad and large; if it be platter his to grow. Francis did not approve of like, a long slender beard will make it all his subjects wearing nature's covering seeme the narrower; if he be wesellfor the face, and he therefore obtained becked, then much heare left on the from the Pope a brief by which all ecclesi- checkes will make the owner looke big astics throughout France were compelled like a bowdled hen, and so grim as a to shave or pay a large sum. Bishops and goose; if Cornelis of Chelmeresford saies richly beneficed clergy paid the fine, but true, manie old men weare no beards at the poor priests were forced to comply all." with the requirements of the law. Some men have been so proud of their beards that they have taken their loss greatly to heart. Duprat, son of the celebrated Chancellor and Cardinal Legate, possessed a very fine beard. He distinguished himself at the Council of Trent, and was soon afterwards appointed to the Bishopric of Clermont. On Easter Sunday he appeared at his cathedral, but to his dismay he found three dignitaries of his chapter waiting to receive him with razor, scissors, and statutes of the church in their hands. He argued without avail, and to save his beard he fled and abandoned his bishopric. A few days afterwards he died of grief. When Philip V. of Spain gave orders for the abolition of beards throughout his kingdom, many a brave Spaniard felt the privation keenly, and said, "Since we have lost our beards we seem to have lost our souls." Sir Thomas More thought of his beard at the time of his execution, and moved it out of the way of the headsman's

Taylor, the water-poet, gives the following catalogue of the styles worn in his day:

"Some like a spade, some like a fork, some square,

Some round, some mow'd like stubble, some
stark bare;

Some sharp, stiletto fashion, dagger-like,
That may with whispering a man's eyes out-
pike;

Some with a hammer cut, or Roman T,
Their beards extravagant, reform'd must be;
Some with the quadrate, some triangle fash-
ion,

Some circular, some oval in translation;
Some perpendicular in longitude;
Some like a thicket for their crassitude;
That heights, depths, breadths, triform,
square, oval, round,

And rules geometrical in beards are found."

We extract a few verses from a ballad on the beard, apparently written in the reign of Charles I.:—

Now of the beards there be such a company,
And fashions such a throng,
That it is very hard to handle a beard,
Tho' it be never so long.

Lest they disturb his lips or saffron band:
How expert he's; with what attentive care
Doth he in method place each straggling
hair."

Andrew Borde wrote a treatise on beards,
which is lost, and only known to us by an
answer written by one Barnes. The latter
takes up the cause of beards in a very
trenchant style. He asks, "Pray, Andrew,
did not Adam possess a beard? and if he
did, who shaved him?" and, "Didn't the
apostles have beards?" Therefore we
should imitate Samson and thousands of
old philosophers who would not be shaved.
Matthew Green wrote the following im-
promptu in answer to a lady who inquired
why beards were not worn as in former
times: -

"To brush the cheeks of ladies fair,
With genuine charms o'erspread,
Their sapient beards with mickle care
Our wise forefathers fed.

But since our modern ladies take

Such pains to paint their faces,
What havock would such brushes make

Among the loves and graces."

All this care of and attention to the personal appearance took up much time, and For unately the same reason cannot be many of the religious writers complain of given now, because our ladies do not disthe time wasted in the trimming of figure their faces, but the general introducbeards. The once celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth tion of beards and moustaches a few years Thomas, in describing the habits of her ago met with great opposition at first; and grandfather, who was a Turkey merchant, it is said that in 1851 the parishioners of a says that his valet was some hours every country parish discontinued their attendmorning in starching his beard and curl-ance at church on account of the clergying his whiskers. She adds that a com- man taking to a beard. Now, whether we panion read to him during the time upon go among rich or poor, laymen or clergy, some useful subject. If what Hutton tells us in his "Follie's Anatomie" (1619) was true, the morning's dressing could not have been sufficient to keep the beard in proper trim:

"With what grace, bold, actor-like he speaks, Having his beard precisely cut i' th' peake.

we find beards everywhere, and doubtless the change of fashion has improved the appearance and benefited the health of many, for we can say with the old

ballad :

ACCORDING to the Sydney Herald, the schooner Surprise has lately made a visit to the coast of New Guinea, penetrating fifteen miles up the Manoa River. Contrary to the general impression, the natives, who were hitherto supposed to be ferocious in their character and opposed to the visits of strangers, were

found to be mild and gentle in disposition. They
were of the Malay stock, and had never seen
white people before. On the departure of the
schooner, under Captain Paget, they exhibited
every demonstration of sorrow, the
weeping and the men accompanying the par-
ty to a cousiderable distance.

1

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[From "The Germantown Pilgrim," an unpublished THEY tell me a solemn story, but it is not sad