THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23 1878.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5336, 23 December 1878, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23 1878.

Death —that visitor who comes " with impartial knock to the cottages of the poor and the palaces of kings"—has just made sorrow in the circle at Windsor Castle. lii the affliction of her daughter's death, Queen Victoria has, indeed, the sincere sympathy of her people. The expressions of such sympathy are no empty ceremony. The present Sovereign of the British Empire has entitled herself to the grateful appreciation anil affection of her subjects by the real services she has rendered in her reign. True it is that, in modern days, a constitutional monarch is, in political matters, nearly, if not altogether, a lay figure ; but, socially, it is quite otherwise. Never was there a period -'hen the wearer of a crown could exercise a more direct and potent influence on the habits and manners of the public. The old times have passed when the boundaries between classes were rigidly defined, and when the definition was often aided by sumptuary laws. But now-a-days that which is the inodo spreads from one clas3 to another, and that light which, as Tennyson says, so fiercely beats upon a throne, was never so strong as in these day 3of newspapers and books,—of the telegraph and the railroad. Human beings are imitative creatures, —nearly as much so, in fact, as those other beings who Mr. Darwin would fain persuade us are "our poor relations." Fashion is, therefore, a thing of marvellous subtlety and power, and hence the extraordinary importance of a good example in the occupant of a throne, —the " observed of all observers." Everybody knows, and there are those living who can personally remember, the mischief which was produced by the example of George IV., a prince indifferent to exerything but his personal gratification, and of whom it was sarcastically said that "he never inconvenienced himself, except by a tight waistband !" It looked like a revival from the Eighteenth Century—a reproduction of that dissolute state of things which in France had so large a share in causing the Revolution. The evils present and prospective which were thus introduced in England were amended by the Court of Queen Victoria and her Consort. When morals aud character were restored to their proper position around the Throne, decency of maanei'3 soon became indispensable throughout all ranks of society. And the Queen's good sense and true refinement brought about a variety of other salutary changes. The duties of the housewife, which women of the highest rank were proud of in England in the olden time—in, for instance, the days of "good Queen Bess," —had in the last century and the beginning of the present come to be neglected, and even lookod down upon by fine ladies ! The Queen has reformed thi3 degeneracy by her excellent management of her orra family. It is well known that the Princesses, her daughters, are adepts in all such feminine work. When they were growing girls they learned to cook and to make pastry ; they might be found any morning making butter and cheese in the dairy, which was built for their instruction and use at Windsor. Like Enid, in her father's hall, they could be "sweet and serviceable." Very many like artificial and unmeaning notions and prejudices Queen Victoria lias got rid of in the women of her generation—as, for instance, that ridiculous 0110 which used to prevail against the wearing of strong-soled shoes, no matter how cold or damp the weather ! Is or was the correcting influence of her good sense confined to the ladies of her own Empire. The effect has been also signally witnessed in the United States.

That what is fashionable becomes popular is, as we have said, peculiarly characteristic of the present time. An amusing instance of this within the last few years was witnessed about that particular matter of crinoline in female attire. That contrivance originated in the lastcentury, when it was an accompaniment of the dress known as the sacque. Then it was worn solely by ladies of rank, and by them not worn always—only in the drawingroom and on the promenade. The Empress Eugenie, with her gay Southern taste for the novel and the picturesque, re-introduced it, and it was not unsuited to the robes and the cere monial state of an Empress. Moreover with her stately figure and rare personal graces, it harmoniously accorded—anything would have accorded. No sooner had she presented it than it spread like an epidemic. It flew to all lands. It took possession of women of all ranks, of all styles of beauty, of all degrees of gravity or brevity. Nor was it reserved, as in its original days, for state occasions or for full dress. It was inseparably linked to the female form, at least during the hours of day. The housemaid could not lay it aside when it was necessary to scrub the floor or make the fire ; the duchess would not part with it in contemplation of the dance, though the danccs of these modern days are not the slow-measured minuet of the last century. Crinoliue must have been credited with all that fascinating magic which mythologists tell us belonged to the girdle of Venus ! And the worst of it was that, as in all fashions, numbers who never liked it and could not be reconciled to it were nevertheless obliged to go with the current under the penalty of being singular and remarkable.

But men. cannot wi th, a good countenance laugh at eccentricities in ladies' fashions when they behold those in their own. The feminine garb in present and recent times is as a whole and as a rule really becoming. It is generally distinguished by good taste; and that can hardly be said of the modern male outfit. Look at the groom-like tight trousers and tight short coat which were the mode lately, at once hideous and uncomfortable, and which succeeded a contrary fashion not without some pretensions to ease and dignity, which was introduced after the Crimean war, and was doubtless suggested by some particular of Turkish and Russian national costume. Practically, the worst of imitations in dress is the tendency to overspread tho world, inconsiderate of the necessities and peculiarities of climate, local habits, &c. Thus we see the portraits of many Asiatic princes in a semi-European garb; and thus the flowing Oriental robes of the Turkish soldiery were some years ago exchanged for the tighter-fitting garments of the West, absurdly out of place under the sun of those Eastern lands. But the imitatiTe tendency in human naturs is as active in other matters—some of far more serious importance. It shews itself jast as strongly in morals, manners, and habits, and so it is that the reign of Queen "Victoria has been an unspeakable advantage I to her people.