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    Untitled Article

    We certainly ( Hd not anticipate that the Bloomer idea of femSe costume would so soon cross the Atlantic and appear among the sombre-dressing foks of London . But it has ? you , dear reader in full skirts and crinoline , may be stocked or surprised-but a lecture onBloomerism by a Bloomer has actually been de-Uvered at the John-street Institution , Fiteroy-square . Great numbers of both sexes attended ; in fact , the hall and gallery were crowded .

    At half-past eight , Mrs . Dexter , the lecturer , a lady about thirty-fiv * years of age , made her appearance on the platform habited in the Bloomer costume . She was received w ith slight manifestations of applause . Her attire , which was wholly composed of black stain , consisted of a jacket ordinarily worn by ladies walking dress , a skirt below that , scarcely re ached dow to the knee , and a pair of exceedingly wide trowsers , tied at the ankle .

    Mrs . Dexter entered at once upon her lecture ; referring to the time of ball head-dresses and expanded hoops , by way of exordium , and concluding ft by a wise denunciation of the " infernal contrivance of tight stays . " She laid it down as a principle , that , providing any dress did no injury to health or offered an affront to modesty ; a woman had a perfect right to adopt that dress . If her particular costume did neither , she demanded to be left at perfect liberty to consult her own taste in the matter of decoration , and her own feelings with regard to convenience and comfort . ( Applause . )

    * ' She had long felt the inconvenience arising from long petticoats ; yet she never thought of adopting the Oriental costume until she learnt that one lady across the Atlantic had ac tually walked abroad in trousers , to the amusement of fastidious fault finders . Let her remind her audience of a common exhibition , a lady ' s dress on a rainy day ; it was a mo ving panorama , and really gave her more trouble than a baby . ( Laughter . ) If that was not a pitiable and ludicrous spectacle , she ( Mrs . Dexter ) was much mistaken . The . long petticoats , too , were equally inconvenient in fine as in dirty weather . When a lady , on a beautiful summer ' s day , attired herself in a dress of rich

    material , she forgot that the pavement would be wiped with it as it trailed magnificently along , enveloped in clouds of dust . What , she would ask , prevented women enjoying the vigorous exercise of their limbs ? Let ladies ask their wardrobes and they would find an answer . Women , from time immemorial , had been cheated out of many a sweet summer ' s ramble in the open country . Was not a woman able to get over a stile without the care and assistance of her husband or her lover . ( Laughter . ) There was elasticity enough in her constitution ( renewed laughter ); but she was the slave of the foolish and too general impression that there was something of vulgarity in the gentler sex depending on their

    own resources . Returning again to the subject of tight-lacing she exclaimed— " Only conceive a Venus held up to the admiration of man supported by slips of whalebone . " ( Laughter . ) Trousers , she Baid , were worn by Greeks , and Bhort petticoats by the Italians . As to the charge of novelty , —why novelty was the sine qua non of fashion . " Would it not be wiser to inquire whether a thing was meritorious or useful , leaving the question of novelty to idlers and simple folk ? She would remind them that there were at the present time millions of women who had never seen any other female dress than trousers and

    short petticoats ; so that their lords and masters in this country must not look on the new dress as an illegal encroachment . The women of Georgia , Circassia , the Burman empire—in a word , one half of the human racehad from time immemorial worn trousers ; so that there would be no danger of her ( Mrs . Dexter ) standing a solitary monument of trousers . ( Laughter . ) She was quite sure there would be more difficulty in convincing the ladies that their errors in dress demanded reform than in convincing the gentlemen that it was their duty to persuade them to assent to the change . ( Laughter . ) She was also

    quite sure that Buch views as she desired to convey would be embraced only by those who had good hearts and happy dispositions . ( Hear , fiear . ) The question in America was , what right had men to wear trousers at all ? ( Great laughter . ) In China the men now wore petticoats and the women trousers . ( Renewed laughter ) In the dress in which she was now endeavouring to enlist their interest there was nothing inconvenient , unbecoming , or unsightly . ( Cheers . ) Of its comfort Hhe could Bpeak from experience , and with regard to its appearance she would leave the audience to contrast it with ita competitors , ( Hear , hear . )

    She vindicated the Bloomer costume from the charge of indelicacy , by a " tu quoque . " Were ladies caught in a shower , and obliged to hold up their petticoats , particularly modest appearances r She said the dress she wore would booh ceuse to be singular : — " She was the first who had dared publicly to call attention to it in this metropolis . She had , therefore , been subject to many jeers . A young man , for instance , unaware of her presence , had usked whether she would

    complete the outrage on masculine attire by appearing at the lecture in whiskers . ( A laugh . ) Another had offered to present her with a box of cigars . She thanked him ; but she had no desire to commit an outrage on nature ; she wished rather to strengthen than to dcbilitute her nerves . Through a foolish tiervility to the dictates of fashion , women had been deprived of choice in matters of dreuH , and in order to maintain their rightu it had consequently become necessary tq net on . foot an agitation a * native m any

    political one . If ladies chose to wear long dresses indoors er in carriages , where they were protected frommud and mire it was not her business to interfere . What she asked was , that she might not be subjected to annoyance or insulting remarks because she differed from those about her in matters of costume , trom the male sex she had never been treated with insult when she had appeared in the reformed costume . On the contrary , they had ever received her with respect and dignified politeness ( A laugh . ) She could not say as much of her sex . " She called on men , in conclusion , as the natural protectors of women in time of need , to shield those of her sex who might follow her example in adopting the costume she then wore from gratuitous and vulgar insult .

    Mrs . Dexter then withdrew , amid expressions of general applause , mingled with some faint laughter .

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    PAPAL AGGRESSION . The " Lord Bishop of Shrewsbury" preached a charity sermon at the church of St . Werburgh , Birkenhead , the same having been publicly announced . Of course Protestants were duly shocked , and the law violated , whereat great wrath . Some of the particulars are interesting , as showing what humanity is still capable of in the way of priestly idolatry in the nineteenth century . The church of St . Werburgh is one of unpretending character , but it was made on this occasion somewhat more attractive . The altar was decorated with

    flowers , and to the right there was a kind of canopy , or throne , intended for the reception of " the Lord Bishop of Shrewsbury . " The service was principally conducted by three priests , in vestments of cloth of gold , who appeared to act as the chaplains to the bishop . " The Lord Bishop of Troy , " whose presence was promised in the handbill , did not make his appearance , and his absence was accounted for by Mr . Brown , who , before the service commenced , stated that " the Lord Bishop of Troy was called to the South , and , consequently , could not be present as announced in the printed placard " ; but his lordship ,

    " their own bishop , would address them in the evening as well as the morning . The sermon preached by " the Lord Bishop" in the morning was a very plain discourse , entirely confined to the charitable object for which the ceremony was got up . The only noticeable feature was that the greatest devotion was paid to the " sacred person" of the bishop , whose hands were repeatedly kissed during the ceremony , by the officiating priests . On leaving the chapel many of the congregation , principally those of the poorer class , kneeled down and eagerly caught the garment of the " prelate , " which they applied to their lips .

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    DR . CULLEN ON EDUCATION . Roman Catholic views on education have received an official exposition from Dr . Cullen , Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland . The document in which this is contained comes to us in the shape of a letter to Mr . Alderman Boylan of Drogheda , in reply to a letter from the Alderman relative to a discussion on education in the Drogheda corporation . Dr . Cullen was reported to be favourable to the " model school and the mixed system , " because he patronised the national schools in . his diocese ; and upon this point Alderman Boylan . wished to be enlightened . Dr . Cullen prefaces his reply with some observations denying the charge that the Catholics are opposed to education : —

    " Before I enter into the subject of your communication , allow me to assure you that I do not yield to any one in a sincere desire to see our people well instructed . You and every true Catholic feel as I do , and our feelings are quite in accordance with the spirit of the Catholic Church . She hus been the instructress and civiliser of all the nations of the earth ; every noble and useful institution that we possess has originated with her ; and to her are due the preservation of the arts and sciences in ages of darkness , and their revival and diffusion at a later period . The man who accuses the Catholic Church of promoting or patronising ignorance , or of being hostile to the improvement of the mind , either does not know her history , or wilfully misrepreuents it . There is ,

    indeed , a sort of knowledge not encouraged by our Church , a knowledge without religion , " which , iib the Apostle St . Paul Bays , puffeth up , and is described by St . Jamea an earthly , sensual , devilish . The effects of knowledge of thin kind can be eattily traced in the history of Europe during the last eighty year a . Its fruits have been sedition , rebellion , immorality , impiety , or , at least , an indifference to every sort of religion . Within the last twenty years the occupier of the throne in France and his ministers became its patroniscra , in their university By stem , and , though that system was altogether under their control , yet they fell victims to the wicked spirit which their favoured godless education called into existence and nurtured . ' lit mine reges intclligite , erudimini qui judicutiu terram . ' ( 11 . 2 . ) "

    In explanation he usHerts , thut Catholics cannot sanction any system of education " opposed or dingurouH to the Catholic faith ; " tliut what in called mixed education in dangerous to thut faith , being found pernicious and " well calculated to how the Hoods of indifforentiwn . " Protestants , he writes , act upon these principles , giving tiuoir children on «

    du-Cfttion purely Protestant and anti-catholic ; never sending them to Catholic schools , and setting a higher value on Protestantism than on its doctrines . He then asks , what are the Catholic doctrines , " about which true Catholics are very anxious ? and replies : — " We believe that if any one -wilfully denies , or even calls into doubt , one single article of our faith , he ceases to be a member of the true Church , and must be regarded as out of the way of salvation . " He stigmatises all Catholics who send their children to the mixed schools in which there is " no mixture of Catholicity "; and he explains , that he patronises the national schools in his own diocese , because they are not mixed schools ; the managers , the teachers , the children , and the spirit of the schools being Catholic . He points out a second class where Catholics do not attend , and a third class , which he

    condemns : — " There is a third class of national schools under the control of proselytising parsons , or agents of bigoted enemies of our faith , in which , though the masters are Protestant , and the teaching and spirit Protestant , yet Catholic children , by promises or threats , are induced to attend . Such schools I consider most dangerous . There is no protection in them for the faith of Catholic children . The parents , indeed , may object to the teaching of Protestant doctrines , and make their representations to the when the

    board . But this is in reality no protection , parents are dependent on the patrons or managers of the schools . It would be necessary to say a great deal about this branch of the national system . I shall for the present limit myself to observe that it is most unjust to tax a Catholic population for the support of schools of this kind that have been , or may be made an engine for undermining their faith . It is to be regretted that the original rules of the national board have been modified in a manner to favour such schools that may be made nurseries of proselytism . " Of the model school he thinks it not necessary to speak much . He delivers a wholesale sentence on these schools , in which Protestant , Presbyterian , and Catholic teachers instruct children of every denomination , and over which Catholics have no control . " The whole system tends to inspire children with the absurd idea that all religions are equally good , and is thus hostile to truth , which is one and exclusive in its nature . The system also is directed to throw the- education of a Catholic population into the hands of a Protestant Government , or at least of a commission appointed by the Protestant ministers of the day . Ought Catholics , or can they , conscientiously take an active part in establishing such schools ?"

    The remainder of the letter is devoted to a reply to a possible objection to his opinions on these important points . It will be argued , he says , that we live in times of great liberality , and that no teacher will interfere with the religious doctrines of his pupils . But , he replies , is it not a fact borne out by experience , that the most liberal of Ministers , Lord John KusseJl to wit , are oftenest most hostile to the Catholic religion , writing Durham letters , demanding penal enactments , displaying great bigotry , and treating its

    rites and practices as the mummeries of superstition ? Trinity College does not escape . Its effects are evil in the eyes of Dr . Cullen : — " The example of those in office , the sneers of companions , the spirit of the place , the atmosphere itself , produce tiieir effect , and many young either become open apostates from the faith of their fathers , or , at least , lose the spirit of their religion , and abandon its practices and observances . " And he Bweepingly concludes that the same effects will probably be produced in the model school when mixed education is fully developed in them .

    Untitled Article

    As a pendant to this , we give the following from the Irish correspondent of the Times . The guardians , of the Newry Poor Law Union have , by a majority of 23 to 13 , negatived a motion for placing the schools under the Board of National Education . As far as can be judged by names , the minority was composed for the greater part of Roman Catholics , and the majority almost exclusively of Protestants , the latter resting their opposition on the threudbare argument ol mutilated Scriptures , unholy tampering with the Word , and so forth . The gentleman who brought the question under consideration , prefaced the motion with a sensible speech , in the course of which he observed : — " I do not care about Dr . Cullen or any one else ; what any one else may do is nothing to me . If they fancy they can put down the national system of education , 1 Hay they cannot do it ; 1 defy them . ( Hear , hour . ) Dr . Beresford and Dr . Cullon may issue their pronunciainentos against the schools , but they will be in vain ; for the whole mass of the people i « in favour of them . Dr . Cullen has not been long enough here to understand the question , which is simply a question of fair play «» n < i justice . Under the national Byatem we have peace ,

    order , and quietness ; but if wo hud it not , we should have broils and disturbance in our ucliools eternally , m conBcqucnce of people interfering with the children and going about distributing tructn umong them . All the great and wise men in the country are in favour ol the national Hystem of edue » tion- « u < h , for ii . Htnnoe , uh I ) , Town « end , Bishop of Mcnth . wlio in a warm advocate ol it The Lord Primal * and Dr . Cullen muHt eventually come round . Dr . C ' ooke and the General AnHeinbly , who were formerly opposed to the national system , had to come round , * ad the other * must do no in th « end . The

    Untitled Article

    Sbp * . 20 , 1851 . J . Cfl g Vbtttftt . 889

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 20, 1851, page 889, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1901/page/5/