AN UNDIGNIFIED DISCUSSION.

Bruce Herald, Volume III, Issue 53, 13 April 1865, Page 5

AN UNDIGNIFIED DISCUSSION.

In the Canadian House of Assembly, recently, they had quite a spirited debate on the bill to prohibit the use of hoops and. crinoline, introduced by Mr. Aikens. We publish a few of the most brilliant passages : — Mr. Drummond was an ardent admirer of hoops from childhood. He was born with a love of hoops. When he was a child of tender growth he used to. trundle his hoops, all unconscious of the fate that was in store for him. Later in life he swallowed a ring, which resulted in a whooping-cough; and even now the sight of an empty hogshead brought the tears into his eyes. Mr. Brown complained that it was impossible to choose a wife, since her defects were so hidden by hoops and crinoline that the naked — Speaker — Order. Mr. Brown — Mr. Speaker — Speaker — The honourable gentleman is out of order. Mr. Brown — But, Mr. Speaker, the naked — Speaker — Hold your tongue, sir. Brown — The naked Speaker — Upon my sowl, Brown, silence, or I will have you arrested. Brown — Permit me to explain, Mr. Speaker, when I said the naked — Speaker — Clear the galleries of ladies, Sergeant. Brown — In the name of the seventeen graces and the fifteen muses, Mr Speaker, lee me apologise ; I only meant to say that hoops and crinolines have reached to such a tendency that it was impossible to arrive at the naked — ■ Speaker (frantically) — Death and blue devils ! Stop, or I'll brain you with the mace. Consider the impropriety nf — Brown — Truth ! truth ! truth ! The naked truth was what I was going to say. Mr. Dunbar Ross understood his honourable friend to say that the people oonld not pass along the streets without being assaulted by highwaymen. Now, surely i he honourable member from Lmke .Ontario could not but be aware that the character of every member of that house was affected by such dam — Mr.. Talbott objected to such unparliamentary language. • "*"■• Mr. Ross protested against interruption He was going to say by such dam — Mr. J. Cameron — The honourable, member should not swear in that dreadful manner. Mr. Ross wns'nt doing any thin «• of the kind, but would be tempted to do so. if not allowed to finish his sentence — 'but such a dam — (order, order)— a dam (confusion)—he would repeat it — by such a dam — (tremendous uproar.) Mr. Wright then stood up and moved, amidst tie wildest confusion, that Mr. Ross be expelled the House for such awful language. Mr. Ross' (black in the face) exclaimed that ' damaging statements' was all he meant to say when he was interrupted by :t fool — Mr Talbott— Who's a fool? Mr. Ross — Fooli.su ass — Mr, Cameron — Who's an ass 1 Mr. Ross (wildly) — Foolish assertion oi .profanity. Chinese Writing.'— Caligraphy is n universal accomplishment among educated Chinese. They adorn their houses with the autographs of eminent men, and the various productions of artistical scribes are

very highly appreciated. The Chinese fancy revels in accommodoting- the signs of their language to the shapes of flowers, and birds, and animals, to ancient jars tripods and seals, to the leaves of the bamboo, to legendary tales, to groups of men, ami pictures of nature. Six varieties of writing- are studied : the square, the round, the official, the ornamental, the running-, the condensed. Sometimes the characters are written with such rapidity, the pencil not being- lifted from the paper, as to be illegible to any but, the initiated ; some'jmes every stroke is elaborated with all tli£ care of a miniature artist. They are sometimes painted a foot long-, with a free hand ana a coarse briibh ; at others the finest camel-hair pencil is used to produce characters in the minutest perfection ; and to say the truth, no handwriting- in the world can be compared, in variety of forms or in artistic grace and beauty, to the Chinese. No present is more highly valued than a scroll or a fan on which a person of literary reputation has written the aphorism of a sage, or the verse of a poet. The association of the graphic with the poetical art is sufficient for the esttblishment of the hig-hest reputation. We have often listened to the reproach from the learned in China : < You are warriors, indeed, but yours is the language of barbarians, and you can have no poetry. — 'All the Year Hound.' George the Second.— ln the afternoon of the 14th of July, 1727, two horseman might have been perceived galloping alon«---the road from Chelsea to Richmond. The foremost, cased in the jackboots of the peroid, was a broad- laced, jolly-looking-, and very corpulent cavalier, but by the manner in which he ui-g-ed his horse you mi»-ht see that he was a bold as well as a skilful rider. Indeed, no man loved sport better, and in the hunting-fields of jNorfolk no squire rode more boldly after the fox, or filtered Ring-wood and Sweetlips more heartily than he who now thundered over the Richmond road. He speedily reached Richmond Lodg-e, and asked to see the owner of the mansion. The mistress of the house and her ladies, to whom our friend was admitted, said he could not be introduced to the master, however pressingthe business mig-ht be; the master wa° asleep after dinner, he always slept atter his dinner, and woe be to the person who interrupted him ! Nevertheless, our stout friend of the jackboots put the affrighted, ladies aside, opened the forbidden door of the bedroom, wherein upon the bed lay a little gentleman j and here the eager messenger knelt down in the jackboots. He on the bed started up, and with many oaths, and a strong- German accent, asked who was there, and wko dared to disturb him ? ' I am Sir Robert Walpole,' said the messenger. The awakened sleeper hated Sir Robert Walpole. ' I have the honour to announce to your Majesty that your royal father, King- George 'l., died at Osnaburuon Satunl.-iy hist, the 10th instant.' < Bat is one big lie, 1 roared out his sacred Majesty King- George the 11. But Sir Robert Walpole stated the fact, and from that day until three and thirty years after, George. I the second of the name, ruled over England. — ' The Four Georges.' * ° How to dress for a Photograph. — A lady or gentleman, having- made up his oilier mind to be photographed, naturally considers, in the first place, how to be dressed so as to show off to advantage. This is by no means such an unimportant matter as many mig-ht imagine. Let me offer a few words of advice 'touching- dress. Orange color, for certain optical reasons, is, photographically black. Blue is white; other shades or tones of color are proportionally darker or lighter as they contain more or less of these colors. The progressive scaie of photographic color commences with the lightest. The other stands thus : White, light blue, violet, pink, mauve, dark blue, lemon, bine-green, leather-brown, drab, cerise, magenta, yellow-green, diirkorown, purple, red, amber, morone, orange dead black. Complexion has to be ' much considered in connection with dress. Blondes can wear much lighter colors than brunettes ; the latter always present better pictures in dark dresses,' but neither look well in positive white. Voilenf contrasts of color should be especially guarded against. In photography, brunettes possess a great advantage over their fair sisters. The lovely golden tresses lose all their transparent brilliancy, and are represented black; whilst the ' bonnie blueVe ' theme of rapture to the poet ; is misery to

! the photographer; for it is put entirely out The simplest and most effective way o-f removing- the yellow from the hair is to powder it nearly white ; it is thus brought to» about the same photographic tint as int nature. A freckle quite invisible at a short* distance is, on account of its yellow color rendered most painrully distinct when pho-og-raphed. The puff box must be called in the assistance of art. Here let me intrude one word of general advice. BBlure r us we have seen is most madly affected by light, and yellow the least; if therefore you. would keep your complexion clear and freefroin freckles whilst taking your delightfulrambles by the s»a side, discard .by all means the blue veil, and substitute a dark preen or yellow one in its stead. Blue tulle offers no more obstruction to the actinio rays of-" the sun than white. Half a yard of yellow net, though not very becoming* will be found more efficacious and considerably cheaper than a quart of kalydor. Thecause of freckles is simple enough. It isnothing more than a darkening of the saltsof iron contained in the blood by the action of the light. A freckled face is, therefore,, an animated photograph. — ' All the Year Round.' Duelling. — The theory of duelling* was based on the assumption that every gentle**man must be skilled in the use of the weapon which he wore daily by his side. Thetheory was handed down from times when such was really the case, when every man of birth, not a churchman, held his life 'by the cross of the sword,' as Rob Roy says ; and when, consequently, such inequalitiesof swordsmanship as afterwards became general, and such characters as the professed duellist, were alike impossible. Duelling under these conditions really was what it was intended to be, a protection to the weak, without becoming an instrument of intolerable tyranny in the hands o-f bul- - lies. It equalized the physical strength, , and in some degree the social power, of the ' two combatants; for a poor man, though at a very great disadvantage in seeking for - redress against a duke by the oi-dinary ' legal means, might nevertheless, if a gen- - tleman, bring him foot to foot upon the turf with himself, when not all the great man's riches, nor retinue, nor influence, availed him one atom" against the glittering- " point which rose within a foot of his throat. Duelling then, in theory, was a general concession on the part of brute force and -; superior rank to the weaker and less in* ■ fluential side. Unchristian it confessedly was, and we are not to be supposed to be defending duelling- in the abstract. But it was not to be avoided by recourse to a substitute, which it is the only apology for duelling to have kept down — we mean superior- physical strength. For gentlemen are not supposed as a mere matter of ' course to understand the use of their fists in a scientific sense; npr even if they were, would pugilistic science g-o nearly as far as gladiatorial science, towards redressing- the difference of size and weight in an enj counter of the kind we are now supposing* to take place. It was not, we believe, beeau&e duelling was unchristian that society discarded it. for men do equally unchristian things every da} r which they excuse by custom or passion, but because it was found that its abuse was greater than its use, that the toleration which it secured, to ruffians was greater than the protection which it afforded to honest men. If this ; were so when duells were fought with--swords, it was so twenty times as much: when they came to be fought with pistols. For even the worst swordsman had some little knowledge of his weapon, whereas the worst pistol-shot would hardly hit a haystack. As men did not carry pistols they did not as a matter of course acquire skil in the use of them, and the facility thu afforded to any man who chose to make himself expert, for domineering over the rest of the world became too great to be endured. These were the successive steps in public estimation by which duelling descended to its present well-deserved disgrace. But a hundred years ago it seems to us that no one individual had a right to. take upon himself to-lay down the law on the subject, much less by acting that very part which duelling was meant to make impossible — the part, namely,, of the bully. — •' Frazer's Magazine.' A Blunt Boy. — A lady of somewhat dignified demeanour, having lost her way,, said to an urchin in the street, ' Boy, 1 ■vant to go to Dover-street.' * Well, mann/ replied the boy, cooly walking' on, ' why don't you go there, then Z '