and then caught the infection, and declared in favour of nature, and crop the nymphs and graces, the standards was the word. -Elderly men discardof beauty and elegance in remote ed those immense bushes of cowages, became the models from which hair which had so long been thought the votaries of fashion as well as the the necessary appendages of age and painter and sculptor drew all their competence, and adopted a substitute ideas of what was graceful or becom- more resembling a natural head. The ing. In observing on what is gained faculty, who had mostly laid aside by the sex in this revolution in taste, their orange or other professional the remark of the Bow-street officer colour, now farther assimilated their applies with considerable force. Let appearance to that of their fellowus imagine a group of females dress citizens, and physicians are no more ed like our lady of the manor, every to be distinguished by their dress, lineament of their form obscured or except a few, who have in general distorted, and after the mathematical little else to distinguish them. This question of the heighth and breadth reformation in taste even reached the of each individual is considered, what clergy, who, averse as they may seem remains to give one a superiority to to the name of reform, many of them another but the charm of face? We cashiered their unfortunate peruquiers, will next suppose an equal number, and the amount of the powder tax not of nudes, but of the more modest and the price of cow's-tails fell quietly copyists of the antique. The face is together. The price of provisions coonly a part, the form first draws our operated; the war-office rescued attention, and she finds that as far as some thousand barrels of flour from personal attractions only are consi- the waste to which it was otherwise dered, we have more than double the destined; and in this point of view number of charming women. When alone, the disuse of powder may be the ladies had thus discarded their considered a beneficial change in the whalebone armour, to have retained customs of the country. With the the load of superfluous ornament ladies and some of the gentlemen, which fashion had piled upon their Brutus and Titus have had the ho heads would have shewn the same nour of giving a name to two differerror in taste, as the artist, who, having executed a fine naked bust of Garrick, gave him a full-dressed head of hair and a bag. But Messrs. Pitt and Co. prevented their committing that solecism by a measure which succeeded like many of their other measures. The powder tax first restored to their natural colour, and cur- Whether the changes in female tailed of their dangling incumbrances dress have been so unfavourable on behind, those heads which had often- the whole to health as some have est shaken in doubt or disapprobation imagined, I may be permitted to of the measures which rendered it doubt. If the stiff swaddling with necessary. The example of so many which children as soon as they were persons in all ranks of society, served born used to be encased at Hainburg, as an apology to their own pride; for was the cause of that city furnishing many who were indifferent to men so many examples of early decrepiand measures, would have scorned to tude in every possible variety of disconfess that they could not afford tortion, surely the whalebone case their guinea. The younger branches in which females of every age, shape, of large families from economy dis- and size used to be trussed, which, if carded powder, and when, in a few it did not, like the bed of Procrustes, instances, a good head of hair, with reduce them all to one length, mouldall the advantages of the new style of ed all the fashionables to one shape, dress and a good person to co-operate must have been the cause of many with it, had been fairly set in compa- distortions and more disorders from rison with the best powdered speci- so unnatural a compression of the mens the artist could furnish, taste vital parts, than are to be apprehended

ent modes of setting off the hair, artificial ringlets have succeeded, first for those who wanted them, and next for those who did not; but, whatever vagaries they may have run into, I believe the women understand too well their own interest to attempt a counter-revolution..

from the exposure of them to the it has long been almost confined to cold. The story of the Indian is well the ranks; but a late order of the known, and though it has an indeii- commander-in-chief, which will have cate sound to say that our ladies are the effect of a sumptuary law, enbecoming all face, it may be very near the truth. The principal ill consequences to be apprehended are that a few delicate creatures who would inevitably have been screwed into a consumption, may now find their way to that melancholy goal by ano

ther road.

joins the use of gaiters, and the disuse of lace to the several classes of officers whom the use of boots and the attempts to rival their superiorsin finery, often drove to dishonourable expedients to elude or pacify the creditors, which their extravagance in those with other expensive fineries, The changes that have taken place brought upon them. The order from among the men are on the whole the same quarter for cutting off those very much in favour of ease and pro- immense queus, which were highly priéty. Instead of silk brocade and inconvenient at home and in action, buckram, frogs and gold lace, the could only be of use as a handle to squareness of skirt and immensity of the pursuer, and perhaps a derrien cuff, or the closely fitted jackets, guard to a run-away, may be consi which in their effects approached the dered as a tacit censure on the intro· strait-waistcoat; both in the make duction of them, which, with the and materials of their garments furs, fringes, and furbelows of German which they have adopted, is an union origin, with which our cavalry is of f simplicity and attention to per- late so ridiculously bedizened, occa sonal convenience; and the differ- sioned an indignant veteran to reence between a man of first rate mark, that he did not see any thing elegance in an undress, and a gay a certain personage had acquired on disciple of George Fox is not offen his foreign travels, convertible to the scarcely discernible. The enormous service of his country, that he might buckle, which instead of being adapt not have learnt in an apprenticeship ed to keep on the shoe, was obliged to an army tailor. to have a shoe made on purpose to Among articles that do not come fasten it, has been exploded for the precisely under either of the heads old, but neat and comfortable fashion proposed in the commencement of of the shoe-tye. The introduction of this paper, but which have come into the Polish pantaloon and half-boot general use are the umbrella and pa was about cotemporary with that of rasol. The former is now made of the shoe-tye, but though almost as such cheap materials that it is in the universally adopted, they have not hands of every class above mendicity, the same recommendations of ease and the latter has but one move lower and economy, and the general use of to make, to be twirled on the Sunday boots has perhaps militated more by those who have twirled the mop than any other change of fashion during the rest of the week. Voltaire a against the interest of the poor in in his sneering way, says, the Pope general, by uniting with other causes has an army of soldiers who mount to raise the price of leather, so that a guard with umbrellas. Many people labouring man must, to procure a no doubt suppose it a poetical license; pair of strong shoes, sacrifice a large I did so myself, till I happened to see proportion of his weekly earnings. the guard relieved at Ratzburg, one The gaiter, lighter and more econo- rainy morning when I really saw mical, has partially succeeded the some of the men-machines of his half-boot; but the appearance of Serene Highness of Mecklenburg economy in dress being one of the Strelitz take the same defence against externals of poverty, the gaiter, with the weather. all its recommendations, can only be expected to obtain a very inferior place among the fashionables, though among the classes above or below the fashion, its use is become very general. As a military accoutrement, our manufactures. The great trial of

But this is a digression; and to return to and conclude my cursory re marks, I shall endeavour, in few words, to describe the effects these revolutions in dress have produced on

kinds I alluded to, I can only hope some one of your numerous correspondents will give me the correction, I shall be very happy to receive either for faults of omission or commission.

flannel and calamanco versus dimity mand occasions very little complaint. and muslin, seems in the court of If I have omitted to notice any refashion to be terminated by a com- markable and general change of the - promise in which the staple commodities of Britain, like her interests in a late convention, are only considered as of secondary importance. Flannel, it is true, in spite of Dr. Darwin, has regained among the men even more, perhaps, than it has lost among the women, but calamanco with its stiff ungraceful fraternity of stuffs seems irrecoverably banished, except among a few old fashioned people, and the lowest classes of the community, and œconomy has joined with fashion to prevent a recal. To what rank has the rage for muslin not extended both upwards and down

L

Silk, for a short period, was

I remain, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

H. M.

OBSERVATIONS on the DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN a GREAT MAN and an
ILLUSTRIOUS MAN.

For the Universal Magazine.

E must not confound, as the

Wards? laid aside, and the loom of Wast do, the poweful with

the great man. Power often comes either from birth, or by different conjunctures of fortune, or rather, by the different external arrangements of providence; but we cannot become a great man except by the single inward qualities of the heart and mind, and by the important benefits which we may confer upon society.

Manchester and Glasgow supplied its place, but its eclipse was of short duration for its uniting lightness with warmth must ever render it a favourite with the fair, and to the fashionable world it has this powerful recommendation, that while its price is in a certain degree a check upon its descent among the vulgar, among its varieties of texture and colour, and of These are the great men who merit uses to which it may be applied, fa- our esteem, our praises, and our inshion can ever find something costly, ward respect: for, external respect too whimsical to be, in the common is the privilege of the powerful man, phrase, every body's money, although of the man who is in an elevated siits price may not confine it entirely to tuation. Esteem is given to the perthe opulent. In the various fashions son: outward respect is given to the of dressing the hair without powder, place. the frizeur, by degrees, superseded the milliner, and the milliner, under the title of dressmaker, has exploded the old business of mantua-making, at least its name. An immense number of hands employed in the manufacture of buckles has been obliged to turn their industry into another channel. The manufacturers of Nottingham and Leicester have been sensibly affected by the introduction of pantaloons, but the former by its ingenious imitations of foreign patterns of lace, opened itself a trade, which, in the general stagnation of commerce, has given food and clothing to thousands who might otherwise have been pining in inactivity and want. Leicester, in the elastic stuffs produced in her stocking frames, enjoys a trade of such extent at home, that the privation of great part of her foreign de

Neither must we confound the great man who is distinguished by his great talents, his great virtues, and his great benefits, with the illustrious man who is, in truth, distinguished by his great talents and by his great benefits, but not by his great virtue. I shall now proceed to mark, more accurately, the differences which separate them.

SOLON: EPAMINONDAS: ALEX-
ANDER.

Each nation has its great men. We are naturally led to compare them with each other, and we cannot well discern which is the greatest but by comparing them with each other. Ít must be done therefore,

I. The greatness of their talents in surmounting great difficulties. II. The greatness of the ambition

of some, the greatness of the zeal of of others, the public interest, may, others, to procure the public good.

III. The greatness of the advantages or the benefits which they have procured, either to men, in general, or to their citizens in general.

Epaminondas appears to be the greatest man among the Grecian captains. It is true that Alexander has caused more noise by his conquests, but the difficulties which he surmounted were, all things considered, less great than those which Epaminondas surmounted. Now, it is the greatness of the difficulties which are surmounted, which proves the greatness of talents, of courage, and of

of Carthage, which balanced that of attempt. Cataline formed a similar Rome. scheme; but he failed. Who will dare to conclude, from the success of Cæsar, that he is a great man; while the other, merely from his failure, is only an infamous traitor?

With regard to the motives of Casar: he laboured only for his own elevation and to increase his own power. Scipio, on the contrary, in his enterprises, sought rather the honour and delight of rendering great services to his country, by preserving all her liberties at home, and by increasing, considerably, her power without, than to augment his own importance.

Who does not see that they are, in fact, both of them infamous traitors, who sacrificed, unjustly, and without any scruple, the greatest interests of the state to their own individual in-, terests; and that consequently, they are, fundamentally, both of them worthy of hatred and of public execration?

Cæsar working for himself, in the conquests in Gaul, rendered great services to the Romans; but, as soon It must not be supposed that Cæsar as he availed himself of the forces and rendered himself master of the reof the authority which the Romans public, merely from the fear that had confided in him, to overthrow Pompey would have done it if he their government, and to render him- had not; for if he felt, as a prinself, in despite of the sanctity of oaths cipal motive, the welfare of his counand of religion, the tyrant of the re- try, and its real augmentation, would public, I no longer consider the ser- he not, when he entered Rome vicvices which he has performed, I con- torious over the tyranny of Pompey, sider only the treason he has been would he not, I say, have restored to guilty of. He appears to me in no his fellow-citizens the liberty of sufother light than the ordinary one of frages in the choice of magistrates an ambitious man,-a cheat celebrated and of ministers of state? Would for his great talents, who has been he not have reinstated the republic able to conceal his pernicious inten- in the sovereign authority? Would tions and his unjust ambition under he not, in conjunction with Cato, the appearance of effective services. and other well-meaning individuals, It is so certain, that, all things con- have improved the plans of scrutiny sidered, he deserved blame rather in elections, especially for the printhan praise, that, if he had been cipal offices? Would he not have lakilled at Pharsalia, where he caused boured, with them, thus to close for so many Romans to perish, and if ever, to future political knaves, the Pompey, being conqueror, had re- road to corruption in that respect, stored to the senate its ancient au- which he had, himself, employed in thority, and to the people the liberty attaining public situations? of suffrages, as Sylla had done, it is That was the only way by which certain that Cicero, Hortensius, Cato, he could have acquired the noblest and the other good citizens, would, and most desirable reputation which without any hesitation, have placed, a good man could wish. It was the Cesar, vanquished and punished, in only way by which he could obtain the same light as Cataline; with this that title of a great man to which he difference, however, that if Caesar had aspired: but he had not a mind of rendered greater services tothe republic sufficient sagacity nor of sufficient than Cataline, he had, also, caused it integrity to feel and acknowledge in more misfortunes: so that his name what consisted the true greatness of would have descended down to pos- man; his soul had not sufficient eleterity loaded with the same infamy vation to feel, like Cato, that the as the celebrated name of Cataline, essential quality of a great man is to who, on his side, was not without strive for the honour of increasing, great talents, but failed of success in at our own hazard, the welfare of cur Lis infamous undertaking. country. He thought otherwise, and The intention of Cæsar was to ren- followed the path of men of ordinary der himself master of the government, ambition, who, instead of sacrificing and, consequently, to overthrow the to true greatness, which is immutable republic: he succeeded in the base and immortal, sacrifice only to great