own person by the speaker to free-and- | contingencies. The first is when, at a easy costume. Before leaving the House of Commons, we must return once more to the irrepressible hat; for it plays a leading part in that assembly. Gentlemen to whom it would never occur to wear hats in their own houses, sit glued to the benches for hours, closely covered. It may be said that they keep their hats on their heads because there is nowhere else to put them. But why bring them into the House at all? Although the Fatherland has not yet been persuaded to remunerate its representatives, it has, at least, been thoughtful to provide each of them with a peg, whereon hat and cloak may be suspended as naturally as in one's own hall. If it were the custom to convey umbrellas and clouded canes into the Chamber, one might discern and sympathize with the motive, because of the known altruism which inspires some people in regard to these movables; but one must be in the last stages of kleptomania before he is tempted to appropriate his colleague's headgear, especially where the average quality of the article is so far below par. certain stage of private business, the We There is indeed a certain symbolism, a mute intelligence in the Parliamentary hat. For instance, if you should notice that an honorable member, whom you are accustomed to see going about as closely and constantly hatted as the artists represent Napoleon to have been in crossing the Alps, sud- But seeing how exceptional is the denly appears bareheaded in the lob- contingency above described, and seebies, him you may know to have been ing how greatly it would contribute to appointed a whip of the party to which the comfort of members, without, he belongs. A hatted whip would be surely, detracting from their picturan apparition as unfamiliar as an ordi-esque aspect, if they took to leaving nary member in shirt-sleeves. their hats on the pegs provided in the Again the hat derives constitutional cloak-room, might not provision be importance from being the only article made for its occurrence by hanging a of attire referred to in the standing public hat in some place of easy access orders. Members are directed to un- within the House, say, behind the cover when they rise to address the speaker's chair? or let it even be laid House or to move from their places; on the table with the mace at the but nobody is obliged to wear a hat commencement of each sitting. It is unless he has a fancy to do so, and no-strange that this was not thought of in body requires to have command of one the good days of sinecures. The parexcept in the presence of one or two liamentary groom of the hat might have defended his privilege and salary with continue to be born with spindle or crooked shanks and doubtful ankles, so long will well-turned limbs be doomed to the obscurity of trousers. The exIt must be owned that if members cuse that trousers are more convenient ceased to carry their hats into the House, and comfortable than breeches and hose one of the few sure sources of honest is groundless and insincere. Wherein mirth would disappear from the de- lies the convenience and comfort of a bates. A member would no longer be chimney-pot hat? Yet we have clung able to emphasize an impassioned pero- to it for a hundred years. The real ration, or illumine a halting one, by sit-reason is that, inasmuch as indifferent ting down on his own hat. Nor would legs are in the majority, it has been it be possible for any one to emulate resolved that all alike shall be entombed the feat of Mr. Willis, Q.C., who, stand-in shapeless tubes of cloth. ing immediately behind the Treasury It was on the eighth anniversary of bench, did thrice in the course of one Waterloo that the British infantry first speech knock the hat of one of his lead-appeared in trousers an order from ers over his right honorable nose. the Horse Guards in 1823 having And now let us dismiss the hat from directed that blue-grey cloth trousers consideration (would that it could be and half-boots were to be worn instead as easily dismissed from wear!) with a of breeches, leggings, and shoes. The passing speculation as to the tenacity boots were certainly an improvement on with which, in its present form, it has shoes, but it is equally certain that fixed itself in our scheme of costume. marching is much harder work in trouThis probably has its origin in the jeal-sers than in breeches. Herein the cause ousy felt by those under middle height of artistic clothing received a serious towards others of more commanding blow; for there are always plenty of stature. The desire to level humanity young men affecting a military model, down to one standard has undoubtedly who, when the army was forbidden to given rise to many of our fashions. A wear breeches, were not slow to follow small man may look no bigger with a that example. tall hat on, but he feels so. A hat which Our See in what a dilemma our poor portrait-painters find themselves. clothes are now so ugly that they have to resort to all sorts of device to palliate their evil cut, and play pranks with light and shade to relieve their tiresome colors. Perhaps the most successful treatment is that adopted by Mr. Whistler in his portrait of Carlyle, in which the canvas is kept to a low and limited tone- — a kind of gloaming, with no sparkle of bright light or vivid color - and the cloaked figure looms like a ghost-like reflection of the departed sage. It is a masterly piece of work, yet a gallery filled with such shadows The same jealousy of superior phys- of humanity would be oppressive; one ical advantage has brought about many would long for the flashing glance, the of our ugliest fashions. Sculptors and gleaming metal, the flush of rich color painters sigh with vain weltschmer for in which the Venetian masters rethe small-clothes of eighteenth-century Macaronis, and the trunk-hose of the Elizabethans, but so long as some men joiced. As a rule, when a man is to be painted, his clothes must be dealt with Sculptors enjoy more freedom in this respect than painters, the absence of too. Attempts are sometimes made, | once a poetic ideal and conscious interrarely with success, to avoid this neces-pretation of warm, palpitating flesh and sity. The late Mr. Johnston of Straiton, blood. This was Miss Henrietta Rae's who collected a large gallery of pictures, "La Cigale," in the Exhibition of 1891. stood for his portrait as St. Sebastian, On the whole, therefore, for these and in the nude, with arrows sticking in other reasons too obvious to specify, it various tender parts of his body. One cannot be urged that the British statesclear objection to that device is that, in- man, capitalist, squire, author, or other asmuch as English gentlemen are not notability, should sit for his portrait in the practice of appearing in public otherwise than fully clothed. without their clothes, they are not easily recognized in that unfamiliar state. To be satisfactory, a portrait ought to rep-color helping to conceal the difference resent the subject thereof as he is best between what is nude and what is known. Moreover, most of us would merely naked. But even they are heavshrink from exposing our acalypt forms ily handicapped in their art by the bruto be dusted daily by the diligence of tality of modern garb. Consider the our own housemaids. There would be sic sedebat statue of Francis Bacon by something uncomfortable if the head of Sir Thomas Meautys in the church of a sedate household had to take his St. Michael at St. Albans. The sculptor place, clad in his native home-spun or has rendered the great philosopher's ceremonial broadcloth, to read family" full portraiture in the posture of studyprayers, under a picture showing him as he might have been surprised in the act of leaving his tub an hour before. The fact is, few artists in this climate succeed in painting the nude; it almost invariably gives an impression of the undressed. It is most difficult to avoid this effect, for to paint the human body faithfully some one must undress and sit to the artist. The skin usually clothed upon is of a different color and texture from that on which the sun shines, the wind blows, and the rain beats; a man's back and arms are as different from his neck and hands as a blanched stalk of celery is from the leaves. The painter has to supply from his imagination the warm tones to which the upper surfaces of shoulders and limbs would be tanned by habitual exposure, and usually fails to do so. Etty's groups of undraped figures convey an unpleasant suggestion of live bait; and, leaving out of account the beautiful confectionery prepared each year by the president of the Royal Academy, and skilful abstractions like Mr. Hacker's "Syrinx" in the Exhibition of last summer, there has been in the annual show at Burlington House only one picture during the last three or four years which dwells in the memory as a thoroughly satisfactory rendering of the nude figure, yielding at ing," reclining in his elbow-chair, hat- Whence comes it that we men have lost all sense of grace in our habiliments? Of course it is otherwise with women -some reflections upon their clothing may be entered on presently. How comes it that, to quote a high authority, the surest test of a welldressed man is that, after parting with him, one should be unable to remember the color or material of any particular article of his raiment ? Penelope took just pride in weaving for Ulysses a purple cloak with a hunting scene in gold thread. Ought one to be ashamed of the pleasure derived from reading the luscious details of the clothes supplied to Jehan le Bon, king of France, to solace him withal during his captivity at the Savoy in London; or may one share in imagination his agreeable feel One of the most guileless and cultivated men I have ever known betrayed some of this pardonable affectation. He lived almost constantly on his estate in the north, and certainly was far from extravagant in the matter of tailors' bills. He declared that during a quarter of a century he had only bought a single pair of white kid gloves, one of which he wore at his own, the other at his daughter's wedding. But he was the reverse of untidy in his person, and invariably dressed for dinner, even when quite alone, and always buttoned his dress-coat across his chest. During one of his rare visits to London, Stultz, who was then at the top of his profession, and, for aught I know, may be so still, was called on to make him a new dresscoat, which was duly executed, and the garment sent home. A few days later my old friend reappeared at Stultz's, bringing his dress-coat. ings in putting on for the first time, as | out attracting inconvenient attention, he did on Easter day, 1358, a suit of are very dearly prized. marbled violet velvet, trimmed with miniver, or again at Whitsunday in the same year when he wore a new doublet of rosy scarlet, lined with blue taffeta ? Has Goldsmith forfeited any share of our esteem because of the delight he expressed in his bloom-colored coat? The "Diary" of Samuel Pepys would not be half so readable if it wanted the affectionate mention of the writer's "close-bodied, light-colored cloth coat, with a gold edgeing in each seam, that was the lace of my wife's best pettycoat that she had when I married her; his "black cloth suit, with white lynings under all, as the fashion is to wear, to appear under the breeches;" his "velvet coat and cap, the first that ever I had ;" or his " new colored silk suit, and coat trimmed with gold buttons, and gold broad lace round my hands, very rich and fine." It does not, perhaps, much impress the reader with the greatness of the diarist's mind to be told how, when he went to church, "I found that my coming in a perriwigg did not prove so strange as I was afraid it would, for I thought that all the church would presently have cast their eyes all upon me; "and he brings into relief his prudence at the expense of his loyalty when he writes, "Hearing that the queene grows worse again, I sent to stop the making of my velvet cloak, till I see whether she lives or dies." But these details add to the lifelike interest of the journal, whereas description of nineteenth-century tailoring would be simply intolerable. "Look here," he said, "this coat is not the thing at all; it must have been made for some other man." "Indeed, Sir William," replied Mr. Stultz, "that is surprising; we have always succeeded satisfactorily with your orders. Some slight alteration in the figure, perhaps. We don't grow any younger, Sir William, eh! Let us try it on." Which being done, "It appears a perfect fit, Sir William," continued the artist, standing back to admire his own handiwork; your figure does not seem to have changed in the least." 66 66 "But it won't button, man," rejoined the customer, tugging at the lapels. No, Sir William; it is not intended do so. Dress-coats are invariably worn open." to "But I like mine to button across. "Most unusual, Sir William," sighed Mr. Stultz; "in fact, I may say it is never done.' We smile in our superior way at Samuel Pepys's little vanities, and affect to be as unconscious as the lilies of the field what we are arrayed in; but it is a shallow imposture. In reality, we take as much thought and pains how to be inconspicuous and as little different from our fellows as, in chivalrous times, knights did to make their coatarmor distinctive. Most men like to wear well-cut clothes; no one cares to go about in things that look as if they had been made by a carpenter. Trifling "Oh, Sir William! if it is a CHARdifferences, which can be indulged with- ACTERISTIC, that is another matter" "But I tell you I always wear my coat buttoned in the evening, and I don't care two straws what other people do." 66 and the cutter being sent for, the nec- | the form of tooth-breaking among primessary alterations were planned on the itive people in different parts of the instant. world. Just as an influential Batoka of East Africa, or a Penong of Burmah, whose teeth happened to be defective, feels happier when he has persuaded other young men of his tribe to deface their faultless ivory; so a European grandee, of bilious or dyspeptic habit, would look with prejudice on one whose clear complexion and ruddy cheeks gained brilliancy by contrast with paleblue satin or carnation silk; he might at least have the sense to eschew such combinations in his own attire, and, by showing preference for sombre tints, tend, in virtue of his position and influence, to set the fashion flowing that way; for, as Quinctilian observes, quidquid principes faciunt, præcipere The name of Stultz recalls an incident in my own early days, illustrating how, in spite of apparent disregard, the slightest departure from the prescribed cut brings ridicule upon the innovator. Every one who has been at Eton has realized the gravity of going into tails." The round jacket, falling collar, and black tie are discarded for a cut-away coat, stick-ups, and a white choker. Well, the day had arrived when I was to go into tails, and repairing to Mr. Stultz, I desired to be supplied with a coat. "What sort of coat, sir?" inquired the dignified gentleman in the front room. "Oh, one with tails," I said noncha- videntur. But another motive probably lantly. "A frock-coat, I presume, sir." "Yes," I replied, profoundly ignorant of the terms of sartorial art; and a frock-coat was made and duly sent down to my tutor's. Oh, the shock on unpacking it to find it was not the correct article! Oh, the heartless laughter of the other fellows and the merciless chaff that had to be endured! Oh, the sickness of hope deferred till the right vestment could be made! So wide is the chasm in etiquette between a coat with one row of buttons and another with two. contributed to the discouragement of bright hues-namely, the difficulty of making up one's mind amid competing dyes. Montaigne declares he would not be bothered about it, and never wore anything except black or white. He lived in an age of polychrome clothing (François accoustumez à nous bigarrer, as he observes), and a mind so full of activity as his might well be impatient of the problem of color arising every time he ordered a suit of clothes. But he can hardly have foreseen the lamentable effect upon the aspect of society brought In like degree, as graceful shapes about by universal compliance with his have ceased to be sought for in design-practice. Viewed at a little distance, a ing men's garments, beauty of color has also been rejected, and a preference shown for black, white, or neutral tints. In no article of clothing is this more rigidly prescribed than in leg-covering; and this is the more remarkable because the word "breeches" is supposed to be derived through the Roman form braccæ, from the Celtic breac, which means variegated, of many colors. This marked preference for sombre hues arises, in part, from the same desire to neutralize the effect of physical superiority which has spoiled the shape of modern clothes. It is part of the same plan which, as is well known to ethnographers, takes We crowd of men, whether on a race-course, |