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Leader (1850-1860), 15th May 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 14

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      The State Ball And Its Dress-¦ ¦ ; . ¦• ...

      of superbly-dressed women the utmost that could have been done to set off her charms by tie aid of dress ? Certainly Fashion has ; not done this : and if we look closer into its claims to be respected , we shall find that it is open to heavy charges of evil doing , both by commission aud omission . Fashion is a tyrant under whose oppression a generation of . English girls are doomed to slavery . There is no doubt about the matter . Moralists

      have painted the picture of the feeble , the deathstricken sempstress toiling gravewards to produce the dress which is to give perfection to the living graces of her richer fellow mortal ; the picture has Been hung beneath a picture of the radiant' beauty adorned by the death-labour of an unknown sister ; the truth has been , recognised , wept over—and forgotten . Sashion rules , and needlewomen die still , and , it maybe , will go on dying ;; for the remedy is not easy of application , even if it is ready . Fashion ' s , royalty is too old to be overthrown by plebeian abuse , let it'come even from lips such as those of the Bishop of Oxford ; and heretofore too much

      reliance has been placed on this weapon . " It is for the flower-show /'' says my Lord Bishop , in one of his addresses ; "it is for the gay dancing of the painted butterfly in the summer sun ; it is for such things as these that our sisters and our daughters are to be offered up at the shrine of the modern Moloch in the valley of abomination . " The poor struggling , suffering sempstress gains little by such advocacy as this . We have just admitted the reasonableness of beautiful dresses for women ; the question then is not whether our women shall continue

      to be " painted butterflies , " but whether there is any real necessity for the misery of the sempstress , —for her overtask of sixteen , eighteen , or twent y ^ hours : for her under-pay , upon which she cannot * live respectably ; for the thousand ills , in short , to which the present system condemns her . The evils are admitted , the remedy , we fancy is ready , and the cure may be affected without the dethronement of fashion—much as that is to be desired , on other accounts .

      Ladies and their admirers now want the last fashion , regardless of its fitness , regardless of every consideration , indeed , save that it is " the last fashion . " The results- are to an extreme degree unsatisfactory . Individual requirements are wholly , ox almost wholly , overlooked ; the little woman is dressed , after the model of a large woman ; the short woman is furnished with , skirts as wide . as those worn by the tallest . What is wanted to cor * rect this bad taste is an artist in dress , who would adapt it to the form , complexion ,, and character of the individual . Were there artists in dress , every

      lady , upon occasions such as the State Ball of Monday evening , would have her dress specially designed ; for eaoh woman lias some defect to be mitigated , some beauty to . be heightened by her costume—by the setting of the living picturo . As long as women , simply consult the oracles of Fashion , their dresses will simply be slop-clothing-, produced with all the . drawbacks of that lund of manufacture - — readiness- at the expense of careful preparation , ¦ with poverty and fatigue out of all reason to the producer . One of the crudest hardships of the poor needlewoman is that , upon occasions of great

      demand , the orders for her work are not given until tho last moment ! at . whichit is physically possible to execute them , tho consequences being a wear and tear of mind and body too great to be long withstood . I ? or this evil a > partial remedy seems to bo at hand in . the development of the * sowing machine ; but something more can be done still . But it is by raising the character of women ' s dress into a branoh of art thut the condition of tho dressmaker would be improved . Time would be required for the elaboration : of the artists' designs ; thus her health would bo benefited ; and her work would be of a kind to command a hi g her payment , so ensuring her avast accession of comtorts , beneficial to her ; both morally and physically . And it is not alono upon the workwoman that tho art-spirit

      applied to dress would tell ; new refinements would grow out- of it among the wearers of artisticallyproduced * dresses ; elevation of thought , new bea . uties of form , and even of countenance , would ho developed by their use . A Stale Ball so dressed might , as a-picture , present to the eyo beauty not ' greator tlian that' upon which so many eyes gazed on Monday evoning , for tho silks , the jewels , the comp lexions would remain tho same ; but the individual beauty would bo of a completer kind—would include muoh beyond itself ; and tlie dotails-of tho picturo would give tangible proof of the axiom that art is labourdivinclyinspired . Tho first State Ball so

      dressed will be a memorial festival to the emancir pated slaves of the needle ; it will celebrate another triumph— -the overthrow of tlie idol tyrant Fashion , and its sacrifices .

      470 The Leadee. [No. 425ymat 15, 1858.

      470 THE LEADEE . [ No . 425 yMAT 15 , 1858 .

      An Alisonic Ode. Sir Aecbibald Aijson Is...

      AN ALISONIC ODE . Sir Aecbibald Aijson is perhaps the only man . in this country who can oarry poetical' fictions into political economy . "Were the Western Bank of Scotland as poetical as that founded by Oberon , the wordy Baronet eoald not more apologetically discourse of the " wild time ' of Free Trade , or " babble of green" ledgers with greater Gameronian frace . The Western Bank 9 he says 3 conducted its usiness in a confidence "founded on the belief so strongly inculcated by statements made by the most respectable members of Parliament , and in the Times and other popular journals , that no limits could be assigned to the progress and prosperity of British commerce under the system , of free trade , and that all dang l er of a collapse was prevented by the restrictions imposed by statute upon our currency , so that every real transaction could stand upon its own basis . " Since the poet Fitzgerald denounced Napoleon by asking , " Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies , Who makes the quartern loaf andXuddites rise ";" since Mr . Micawber referred to "tightness in the money market" as causing- his own difficulty in raising a loan of five shillings , we know of nothing equal to this in the whole course of fiction . We no longer-require to " Call up him who left half told The story of Gambuscan bold , " for here is one who " can sit upon the ground and tell strange stories of the deaths of banks . " Banks , to Sheriff Alison , are like kings ; portents wide , the delusion of a whole nation , the mistakes of a niierhtv

      people , herald their fall and contribute to their demise . But if the preliminary promises of : the freetraders led shrewd Scotch bankers into evil ways , were there no other victims ? Has not Commissioner Phillips ruthlessly sent back to gaol insolvent gentlemen who could have pleaded with force that , misled by Mercator and the bulliouists , they had imag ined ^' danger of a collapse was prevented by the restrictions imposed by statute upon our currency . " We imagine that even tlie good-humoured Commissioner Murphy would consider that such a poser as this in the mouth of an insolvent petitioner

      were no joke . It is equally bold and cunning . It would suggest a plea for Talstaff and Poins ( mute , inglorious Gladstones , Come wall Lewises who could not quote Lathi ) , that by sacking the king ' s exchequer they were only " attempting to redress the one-sided manner in , which the balances had been arranged by the Chancellor of the Exchequer . " Why is not Sir Archibald Alison made Attorney-General for thieves ? He would soon teach the world a new nomenclature . Fancy him before the Recorder ( Hamlet defied his friends to play on recorders , but what were Rosencrantz and

      GuiMenstern—mere barristers of six years' standing—to a Scotch sheriff ?) playing on the fine humanities of the judge and jury . ' Surveying mankind from China to Peru , he would find iu foreign wars and gold discoveries causes which tended to tighten tlie money market , such tightening in a chain of causation of fine links leading to the bankruptcy for five millions of a great discount-house , the dismissal of John Jones , of Peokham , from his conofortablo post , the refusal of John Jones to allow Sally Brown " a follower , " the despair of such follower ; and his refusal to lend Bill Sykes five

      shillings , " which refusal alono caused Bill Sykos ^ . my unfortunate client , a victim of false financial theories , to pick the pocket of the prosecutor , who , owing to a providential ceincidoneo , happoned to be himself a benighted bullionist , and at that moment reading Mercator'a new book . " Such an appeal would have an electric effeot on a jury : circumstantial ovi + dence would break down before providential causation . In iact i wo now disoovcr thai ; Pree Trade and a , gold currency are devices of Satan and Lord Overstone , and that Providence , on the whole , waa on lho side of Micawber during tho lato crisis .

      National Oil Local Charity. Mr. Ayuton's...

      NATIONAL Oil LOCAL CHARITY . Mr . Ayuton ' s bill tending .. to equalize poor-rates m the Metropolis has ' been lost , but tho question dooH not fall to the ground ; for it involves at onco a principle , and a pruotioiU concern coining lionio to men s ¦ business . In charity a looal or a general

      obligation ? Are we to refuse pity because the pitiable do not " belong to our parish ? " Is the " good Samaritan" to refuse a second rate of cc twopence " for the relief of Jews ? Is the " quality of mercy" to be strained so as to exclude can neighbours across the Union , boundary ? There is then , the practical evil that the localization of relief makes the very poor parish support its o-wn destitute—in , other--words , makes the very poor support the-very-poor . St . George ' srU > the-East is ain unfashionable neighbourhood - full of cheap houses ; they have the poor always with them . St .

      George ' s , Hanover-square , is a rich parish , where builders erect houses for rich people , and . the poor are almost entirely excluded ; The poor , parish sapports itself , while the rich parish does the same ; and considering that one class ^ habits the Westr end parish and another class inhabits the parish in the East , the' fiscal arrangement is practically the same as if the gen-try of a county declined to support any charitable subscriptions ^ on the ground that none of their own class required charity . St . George ' 8 ^ Hanoiver-square , says " wo have little or no poor , we will pay little or no rates . " The

      pressure of the times accumulates liabilities- on the poor and suburban parishes , while the West-end parishes or the- central City parishes , full of . the counting houses of the merchant princes , find their burdeii lightened every year . 3 ? or instance , in Fulham , during the last five years , there has been an increase in the number of removable poor from 252 to 426 ?' , and the cost lias extended from 354 £ . to 3277 ? ., while in the parish of St . George ' s , ; Hanover-square , the amount expended for the poor remains the same as in 1830 , notwithstanding the enormously increased value of property there . In addition , the removing and removability of the poor is bad

      policy in every way . It deters that free circulation of working men in search of employment where most plentiful , and makes the management of the poor additionally expensive . There is a great deal to be said on the other side . If you do not give local authorities an interest in cheap management of the poor-houses , you cau have no economy . Central head and local hands have always failed in money matters in this country . This argument is so strong , that with many minds it outweighs all that can be said on the other side . It is said that if you have anything like one

      metropolitan ra , te the same principle points to one national rate ,, and then , you have the House of Commons voting , at midnight , and with the apathy succeeding some fierce personal conflict , millions to be- muddled away by local guardians . The only cheek on the local bodies would be the tardy audit of a central bureau , while now county papers and rural Humes and village Hampdens denounce fraud and mismanagement with voices loud enough to keep the ratepayers awake . If some plan could be devised that would secure this local vigilance without unduly crushing down poor localities , we might secure a . fair workable system .

      Russia And Our North-West, Frontier. Whe...

      RUSSIA AND OUR NORTH-WEST , FRONTIER . When , at the close of the year 185 G , war was declared agahtst Persia , avc pointed out that our true policy in relation to Central Asia lay , not in . the direction of au aggressive expedition to tho Persian Gulf , hut in rendering the north-west frontier of our own Indian empire " permanently unassailable . " The question , we inaiutained , should , on our part , bo viewed defensively , not aggressively . We were interested in Herat , aud in Persia herself , no further than they ' could be nmdo diroctly or indirectly dangerous to the tranquillity of British India . Other views , however , prevailed . A . British fleet , carrying an Anglo-Indian army , entered the . Gulf , ocoupied Bushiro , and eventually took Mohammera . Tho declared objects of the expedition were the evacuation on tho part of the Persians of tho Herat territory ; the humiliation , but not injury , of Persia herself ; the dismissal of au obnoxious

      prune minister j and the destruction of Russian influence at tlio Court of Teheran . How have I hc . se objects beeu attained P Tho cost of the expedition amounted to nearly two millions sterling . Its drain upon our troops ia India endangered , iu Uie soquel , tho existence of British rule in Hindoston . And suroly this risk and this outlay should not have been " incurred for nothing . Yet what are the faots of tlie caseP Having gone to war for specified objects—having at Constantinople refused to a Persian ambassador tctms pretending to bo nearly all we rwiui led—having then , under the auspices ot Louis Napoleon , accepted at Paris , from the

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15051858/page/14/