that it is really wonderful how they can get the intelligence, they publish. Your friend laughing in your face, and telling you, that he was in the newspaper office to get a puff for a friend of his inserted at the time when your servant came in with, and paid for the paragraph, which lying on the counter, he perused and recognised to be in your own hand writing.".

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DISSERTATION VII.

PLEASURES OF FASHION.

Continued.

Bad Habits; Fools; Genteel Sophistry, &c.

AMIDST all the vicissitudes of Fashion, and changes of dress, which the ingenuity of taylors has devised, and the folly of man has adopted, the costume of the present time stands unrivalled in the annals of absurdity. It was formerly the fashion for gentlemen to have their clothes made to fit them; but modern refinement rejects this habit and we verily believe, that if a taylor now took home a complete suit, calcu lated to fit his customer, the latter would throw it at the head of the former. O tempora! O mores! Formerly, if a clown was represented on the stage, or personated at a masquerade, he was exhibited in a coat which fitted him like a smock-frock, or a hop-sack; but now there is no distinction between the clown and the gentleman, as

they seem one and the same person, at least in externals. The jacket, at present, gains ground rapidly, and a man of true fashion in the costume of the day, appears exactly like an out-rider to a post-chariot, or a Phœnix-office fire-man! There may be more in this, however, than meets the eye; for, in the present state of things, it prevents the possibility of any of the catch-club (sheriff's officers,) sticking in their skirts.

We would recommend to all young persons of fashion, the perusal of the following short story. It is particularly addressed to young persons, because, when people grow grey in any habit, they become quite incorrigible, and admonition is then useless.

"An Italian fool was observed to parade the streets naked, carrying a piece of cloth on his shoulders. He was asked by some person, why he did not dress himself, since he had the materials? Because,' replied he, 'I wait to see in what way the fashions will end. I do not like to use my cloth for a dress, which in a little time will be of no use to me, on account of some new fashion."

NAKED LADIES.

151

What was then told as a fool's reply, might now pass as the result of the mature reflection of a man of sense. It is much to be regretted the fair sex of the present day can't give as good a reason for going naked. We ought, however, in charity to suppose it as emblematic of their innocence! For, as that distinguished lusorist T. Dibdin writes,

"Fashion was form'd when the world began,
And Adam, I'm told, was a very smart man;
As for Eve, we can say neither more, nor less,
But that Ladies of fashion all copy her dress.
So barring all pother, of this, that or t'other,
We all follow fashion in turn."

But the revolutions in dress are less intolerable than the change of manners. Formerly, persons of fashion were distinguished for their politeness, but now they are eminently conspicuous for their deficiency in that once gentlemanly attribute. Justice Woodcock's observation on what was considered in his time as politeness, well applies to our own age :-"This," says he,

46

may be modern good-breeding, but it's very much like old-fashioned impudence." We can laugh at that caprice, or folly, which

induces men to change, without any visi ble cause, the cock of their hat, or the cut of their coat ;-we can see, without a murmur, though perhaps not without some regret, the increase of crops, and the growth of whiskers, but who can witness without deep concern, insolence usurping the place of politeness, and hauteur that of condescension. The bigots of fashion, however, were never distinguished as people of sense; for they have generally neither sense of shame, sense of propriety, sense of decency, nor that very useful, though vulgar article, common-sense. Their motto is made up from two passages of their favourite An

acreon

"Hey to the round of Pleasure."
"Here's to the Devil with thinking."

The sentiments hereby inculcated are gladly adopted by the rake and the elegant gambler, both of whom are daily in pursuit of what they call pleasure, and to such persons thinking is quite a bore. The practices of many Novellists and Dramatists have tended to encourage dissipation and de