summer. The bonnets, which continued very small, were frequently en suite with the rest of the attire.

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It may be worthy of remark, en passant, that whenever the caprices of fashion reach a certain height, and the capacity for invention seems for a time exhausted, a brief interval generally intervenes, during which a certain portion of the fair sex make little incursions upon masculine preserves; the pioneers on such occasions being of the class more especially addicted to out-of-door amusements. The Amazonian dress of the age of Louis XIV., invented to compliment the passion of the Duchess of Orleans for the chase, and complete even to the little couteau-de-chasse, had its votaries in our native land. During the reign of Queen Anne, the masculine riding-dress came into general use, and Addison describes a young lady as attired in a coat and waistcoat of blue camlet, trimmed and embroidered with silver, with a petticoat of the same material, which was the only distinguishing mark of her sex, as she wore a smartly cocked-hat, edged with silver and adorned with a feather. The hair, in this particular case, was powdered and curled, and tied like that of a rakish young gentleman with a long scarlet ribbon; very generally, however, the periwig was an accompaniment of this costume. Towards the middle of the reign of George III., certain ladies of the 'dashing' school, and belonging chiefly to the Whig faction, undertook to astonish the simple-minded and defy the court by similar means; for a certain Arcadian simplicity of attire was rather affected by the unassuming daughters of Queen Charlotte, and the younger married ladies of the day; and to judge by the records of Miss Burney, a shrinking helplessness of manner became its characteristic affectation. Political parties ran high, and the ladies ranged themselves on either side; the 'movement,' with the prince at its head, enlisting the more daring spirits in its cause. At the time when the English 'volonteers' were heroes of the day, equestrianism became decidedly fashionable, and its habit proportionably popular. The dress then consisted of a round beaver hat, with band and buckle, a frilled habit-shirt with a high collar, a black neck-handkerchief, a buff or white Marseilles waistcoat, over which was worn a lapelled jacket, with coloured facings and a long skirt like our own; dark beaver gloves, and high-heeled boots with a silver spur completed the costume. So general did it become, that no lady of condition took the shortest journey in a carriage without it, and it was not deemed unsuitable even for morning-calls. Another section of the ladies of the energetic school were possessed with a furor for driving, and very high carriages of the mail-phaeton class were the vehicles in which they displayed their skill. On the occasion of a lady's handling the reins, the riding-habit was exchanged for a drab box-coat, with horn or silver buttons, left open at the waist, to exhibit the waistcoat and watch-chain with multitudinous seals; the hat and other details resembled those above described. For such ladies as

had not acquired the art of whistling to call the Danish dog -a necessary accompaniment of a stylish turn-out-a silver dog-whistle was an indispensable appendage.

To put to shame such unfeminine audacity, and to exhibit at once their own modesty and humility, a childlike innocence of attire was affected by the devotees of the ancient régime; printed cambric gowns, and meek-looking Pamela-hats were their livery; and to suit the style of the fair occupants, a carriage was invented of such extreme lowness that it almost trailed along the ground; it was entirely devoid of ornament or pretence, drawn by a pair of ponies, and driven by a child of twelve years of age, and was denominated a 'muddie.' Outré as this conveyance then appeared, it was destined to an honourable revival under the name of a park-chair, and solaced in his old age the monarch whose youthful taste it was expressly invented to satirise.

With the ratification of peace in 1815 the continent was opened, and the rich rushed over the water to see what had been doing in the course of the long interregnum. French commodities, if not absolutely interdicted, were only admitted here under heavy duties; but still the visits of foreigners of distinction, fresh from the very court of fashion, gave an impetus and a new direction to our modes. The Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, sister to the emperor of Russia, appeared like a comet amongst us, startling society with a bonnet like a chimney-pot in height, and a pink gingham gown with balloon sleeves, which threatened to overwhelm all who approached her. As this lady had a mania for sight-seeing and displayed herself at Vauxhall Gardens, and places of popular resort as well as in more fashionable spheres, her example was universally followed, and every lady wore a topheavy appearance, although a number of narrow flounces were introduced, in some measure to restore their equilibrium. The hair was dressed in large bows on the top of the head, in honour of the Giraffe, and tier above tier of stiff curls were ranged around the face, to fill up the immense expanse of brim to the bonnet or hat. High dresses now universal, were then first worn habitually, and as the skirts had become fuller, they were not widely dissimilar to those of our own day. Strait frock-coats, à la militaire, trimmed with braid, and closing up to the throat with hooks instead of buttons, full Cossack trousers of gaudy appearance, and Wellington-boots, completed the costume of the gentlemen.

The brief reign of William IV. presented no distinguishing features worthy of especial remark, and the fashions of the present reign will doubtless be too fresh in the reader's recollection to need any recapitulation. It only, therefore, remains for us to observe in conclusion, that although many of the habits and customs of our ancestors are undeniably calculated to provoke wonder and ridicule, even under the softening disguise of a

necessarily imperfect description, it is equally certain that the eye can become perfectly reconciled to any form constantly presented to its view. And it is by no means improbable, that what we regard as the sensible st style of dress which characterises the present age, may afford to our descendants as much food for satire and compassion as any that have preceded it. There is nothing so ludicrous as a fashion neither new nor old' was the apothegm of a great painter; but happily there is an older and still sounder proverb which says, that a fair face is lovely under any hood.'

HUNDRED years hence, and you shall answer for this before God and me.' Such were among the last words of John Huss. They had led him out without the gates, to a pleasant and sunny meadow, in front of the city of Constance; and there, on a high summer-day, in the month of July of the year 1415, surrounded by all the pomp of nature-by that glorious sun which shines on the just and on the unjust-by those trees, and flowers, and flowing streams, which seem ever to be whispering but never telling the wondrous secrets with which they are charged, secrets which shall never be revealed till God himself shall justify his ways to man -he suffered cheerfully a cruel death, rather than renounce his

long and dearly cherished faith. They could call him before their Council; they could give, and then violate a safe-conduct; they could throw him into a loathsome dungeon, washed by the waters of the Rhine, and fasten him even while he slept by a padlock to the wall; they could tear from off his body the priestly garments, and scrape from his nails the holy oil; they could crown him with a paper mitre, and inscribe thereon Heresiarch; they could deliver up his soul to Satan, while he meekly committed it to the Lord Jesus Christ; the emperor could seem as if he had washed his hands of blood-guiltiness, when he gave over the victim to his dear uncle,' the Count Palatine, to be dealt with after the manner of heretics; and he, in his turn, could hand him over to the mayor of the city, who delivered him to the executioners, who gave his ashes to the flowing Rhine: but they could not hinder bands of his faithful followers from singing, in muffled tones, the prophetic elegy-His ashes will be scattered over every country; no river, no banks, will be able to retain them; and those whom the enemy thought to silence by death, thus sing and publish, in every place, that gospel which their persecutors thought to suppress.' They believed not then, what wise men in every age have proclaimed, but which is still little else than foolishness even to the men of this generation, that not more surely does the precious rain refresh and cause to spread the tender plant, than is the blood of the martyrs, whatever their faith, the most fructifying of all irrigation.

The sect known almost ever since the days of John Huss as the United Brethren, or the Moravian Brethren, are descendants of a people who, like to the Waldenses, never bowed beneath the Romish yoke, and trace their origin through the Greek Church to the primitive age of Christianity. The Moravians, as a nation, embraced Christianity in the ninth century, and their tenets gradually spread into Bohemia. In the reign of the Emperor Charles IV., an attempt was made to introduce all the dogmas and usages of the Western Church. Prague was made an archbishopric; a university was founded; and the Italian professors enforced popish ceremonies, prohibited the marriage of the clergy, and denied the cup to the laity. Much persecution followed; but many faithful pastors boldly administered the ordinance in the same form as heretofore in private, and preached with great zeal; one of whom lived to such extreme old age, that he witnessed the formation of the Church of the United Brethren, thereby fulfilling a prophecy uttered by a banished disciple on his death-bed-that there should arise a small mean people, without sword or power, whom the adversary shall not be able to withstand, but that one only of their number should

see it.'

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the writings of Wickliffe had penetrated even to the heart of Bohemia and Moravia, where the people, still mindful of their ancient religious liberty, felt

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