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in outward splendor. Luxury was the order of the in certain countries the wearing of gray slouched day. At the selection of toilets, especially in cer- hats (calabrese) was strictly forbidden; that in tain circles, taste was utterly disregarded at the Russia and Poland red, black, and green (symbolizexpense of costliness, and the Exhibition of 1855 ling bloodshed, grief, and hope of Poland's restoraproved then already that the manufacturers were tion) were tabooed ; and at the present moment but too glad to help on this tendency; they tried red-flannel shirts are not overmuch liked on the to excel each the other in richness and showiness of banks of the Tiber. On the other hand it is a welldesign, and no less in their extravagant prices. known fact, that the wives and female relatives of the But the law of the pendulum movement is unfailing members of the Paris Jockey Club used to appear at and immutable; a reaction was the natural con- | the races in the colors of the Count de Lagrange, in sequence.

order to show their admiration and sympathy for his Shoddy was soon unmasked, the easily gotten horses. During the Italian war in 1859, the Parisian fortunes were as quickly frittered away, the so- | ladies showed a decided preference for white, - green, called “grand monde” were anxious to be distin- - red. At present they are strongly in favor of dark guished from the “ demi-monde" by their very blue cloth dresses with yellow (brass gilt) buttons ; simplicity of dress, and gave over conspicuous cos-probably, as has been jestingly said, in order to actumes to those who lived upon whetting the appe- custom their countrymen to the sight of Prussian tites of the crowd. In vain were all the efforts of uniforms. That the very name of a new shade is the Lyons manufacturers to maintain themselves in by no means a matter of little import may be inpublic favor. England, Prussia, and Switzerland ferred from the eagerness with which the “Bismade themselves independent in their silk-manu-marck-brown” and the “ Vert Metternich” are factures, and produced cheap and plain goods; the adopted. eccentric notions of the North Americans were Shakespeare tells us that the rose by any other tamed down by their great war; the looms on the name would smell as sweet; but the discoverers of shores of the Rhone are standing still until their new dyes and the proprietors of dye-houses are of a owners shall finally yield in rendering obedience contrary opinion, and know very well that there is a to the tastes and predilections of the multitude. If

great deal in a name, as far as the multitude are cannot be governed by decrees from the concerned. This experience, moreover, is not of throne, sneers and ridicule are equally indifferent to recent date.

| recent date. An article “ Essai sur lEsprit de

An article « Ess her. As a proof thereof we need only mention the conversation et sur quelques moyens de l'acquérircustom, imported from England, of allowing the (a treatise on the spirit of conversation and some ends of the ribbons usually worn round the neck to hints to acquire it), published in Paris in 1819, very hang down on the back. The French, as is well | urgently recommended to the reader, in conversaknown, called the pennants of the fair marriage- tion with ladies, to praise their favorite colors ; namseeking neighbors across the Channel, Suivez-moi, ing, as those of that day, crapaud expirant and puce jeune homme ; but this prevented that custom from évanoui. It is very difficult, nevertheless, to acspreading as little as some years ago the last at-count for the sudden and universal favor which a tempt succeeded in driving the round straw hats color or shade is apt to find; for years it (and textfrom the field.

ures also) may have been urged upon the public That “colors” are likewise governed by fashion without being so much as noticed even; all at once needs no special proof; we all know that the very fashion conceives a bankering for the thing hitherto collar of the mourning garb and the drapery of the unnoticed or despised, and buys at enormous prices coffin differs with different nations. As a general what as "unsalable” has long been considered althing, the taste for high colors may be considered most worthless. Much evidently depends upon the extinct with civilized nations; in the male costume

dexterity in the management of the “ réclame”; more particularly, distinct colors are scorned. As forif Fashion is a goddess, Réclame resembles Iris, her regards the habiliments of the fair sex, a similar winged messenger; and just as Iris belongs to Here, movement was at one time apparent; the youthful

so does Réclame more peculiarly belong to the Parose-color, the brilliant sky-blue, disappeared more risians. They know the secret, as if they were and more from the pattern-lists of the manufac all descended from Papa Barnum ; every means is turers, and the so-called indistinct or “made" |

sanctified by the end, every way a good and fair one, colors became the chief article of trade. Owing to provided it lead to the goal, – notoriety. NewsNicholson's and Perkins's beautiful discovery, a sud

I papers, parlor-walls, board fences, railway-stations, eaction was brought about. The aniline drop-scenes, chambermaids, omnibus-tops, job-wagcolors awakened once more a desire and taste for

ons, — all are in the service of Réclame. If we can high colors; rose, sky-blue, and violet became great

but attract the attention of the public ! is the watchfavorites. Almost every day brings a new and

word of the regiments that bear her banner aloft. beautiful shade, whose adoption is by no means im- And if there be a field more especially adapted to peded by the certainty of its short-lived durability : gain her victories, again is it Paris and France, does a peach taste less sweet because we can eat it which, for the sake of a name, adopted the present in a minute or two ?

government and — tolerate it. “ Violet ” more particularly has met with general and lasting favor, even though ästhetic philosophers count it among the “ disquieting ” colors. First and

A LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. foremost, this shade owes its favorable reception to

[The following letter by Sir Walter Scott was discovered, a short the circumstances of being the color of the Napo

time since, among the papers of the late Wilhelm Grimm by his leonic flower; next, and this is decisive, because it son, Herman Grimm of Berlin. It is addressed simply to " Mr. is one of the most becoming, and on that account Grimm, Cassel," and there is nothing to show for which of the

brothers, Jacob or Wilhelm, it was intended. specially preferred by Madame Eugenie.

The references to Robert Owen, and to Brothers the Prophet immortalized by Southey in the Devil's Walk" - are curious.

So is the allusion to the probable “ fall” of Hamburg and the fact are " political events," etc., be they of a greater or

that in 1814 a letter took three months to travel from Cassel to Edinburgh. We have changed all these things; but we have not aban

nce.

not

doned that dislike to the German written character which forms so | Ballads, though alike in name and pursuits, is differpathetic a postscript to Sir Walter's letter.

The Einsiedler mentioned near the close, was, as Mr. Herman Grimm informs me, the Einsiedlerzeitung, a literary magazine to which his father and uncle contributed, and which had a year's ex

the Established Church, but of a particular class of istence only, in 1808.

Scottish Dissenters hitherto only remarkable for reMR. GRIMM, CASSEL:

ligious zeal. But this excellent man, upon a very DEAR Sip, - Your very welcome letter reacbed small income in proportion to his exertions, has bred me only yesterday. I am perfectly acquainted with up a family of fifteen or sixteen children, formed a what you have done for ancient German literature, | library and collection of medals, and employs his to which my studies have in some measure been di- whole leisure in the study of antiquities, without rected, so that I am no stranger to the rich field of forfeiting the attachment of his hearers or neglectancient poetry which your country affords. The ing his professional studies. collection of Professor Müller (the property of a There are two poems in ancient Scottish, both friend) has made me in some degree familiar with classical, and almost epic. One relates to the exDer alte Hildebrand and the other chivalrous heroes ploits of Robert the Bruce, who recovered Scotland of the Heldenbuch. I owe the little knowledge I from the English yoke, and is wellnigh historical have on these subjects to the instructions of Mr. in its details. The other relates to the great chamHenry Weber, a Saxon by birth, an unwegried in- pion of our freedom, William Wallace. It is legenvestigator of the antiquities both of England and dary, but makes up in a high spirit of poetry what of his native country. He resided in Edinburgh it wants in historical authenticity. Both of them until the beginning of last winter, when he left us being, till of late, great favorites with the eommon to follow other prospects which occurred in Eng- people, have been repeatedly reprinted, but in a land. You will probably receive a letter from him very degraded and corrupt state. The historian, respecting what is doing in London in romantic Mr. Pinkerton, has indeed made an edition of the lore. I have requested him to write to you, because Bruce, but it is by no means a good one. I have while all I know is most sincerely at your service, he been instigating Dr. Jamieson, who has collated being utriusque linguae doctor and an enthusiast in and corrected his •copies of both books from the German literature, may be able to communicate best and most ancient manuscripts, to give us such much that is curious and interesting which might an edition as Macpherson's edition of Winton's escape me. "

Chronicle, and I am sure he would obtain a splenMr. Weber and Mr. Robert Jamieson undertook did subscription. He has written a curious and to publish a miscellaneous volume upon Northern learned, but somewhat heavy work upon the Culantiquities, chiefly relating to those of Scandinavia dees, or Ancient Christian Clergy of Scotland. It and Northern Germany, to which I contributed an is somewhat too professional, but I will add a copy abridgment of the Eyrbiggia Saga. I will send to my parcel for you. I will also join copies of my you a copy with some other books, of which I beg own things if not out of print. I am pretty sure leave to request your friendly acceptance. Mr. | I have Sir Tristram, on which I put out my strength Robert Jamieson is still in Edinburgh, having a as an antiquary. But I am at present writing in situation in the Register House. He also is an en- my little country cottage, and shall not be in Edinthusiast in German literature, having long resided burgh till a fortnight hence, and then I shall hardly at Riga, where he had opportunities of studying know how to send my packet. I will make inquiry, it with advantage. Of the other persons concern- however, both at Leith and London, and I only ing whom you inquire, I can also give you some hope it will reach you sooner than your letter of account. My poor friend Leyden died of a fever the 24th January has gained Scotland. My friends after our troops had landed on Batavia, in the East and publishers, the Messrs. Ballantyne, of EdinIndies. He had distinguished himself latterly by burgh, if you should find the Edin. Annual Register the most extenstve acquirements in Oriental lan- likely to find sale in Germany, which, from the guages and literature, and his loss is incalculable. historical information, I should think probable, will With the Northern Antiquities you will receive the supply you or your correspondents in exchange for Edinburgh Annual Register, which will probably foreign books of reputation. Most of the other interest you. The history is written by Southey, volumes of which I shall request your acceptance one of our most celebrated authors, both in prose are also published by them. What I trust to be and poetry, and lately named Poet Laureate by the able to send you áre, The Register, 8 volumes, Regent. It contains a memoir of poor Leyden's The Culdees, — My own Poems, and Sir Tristram. life, which I drew up for the Register, and some Besides the poems of Marmion and Lady of the other literary articles which will perhaps amuse you. Lake, I wrote the Lay of the Last Minstrel and one

Mr. Ellis (a man of fortune, and long a member of Don Roderick, and more lately, Rokeby (these of Parliament) is a particular friend of mine. He I will send with the Northern Antiquities, and per bas published nothing save his abridgment of the haps some other things which do not occar to me at romances, with which you are acquainted. He was this moment). I presume mails will be now regua great patron of Mr. Owen, and very earnest for larly made up through Holland until Hamburg fall. the publication of the Mabinogion, of which I have If you address me under care of Francis Freeling, seen some curious specimens in his possession. But Esq., General Post-Office, London, a letter of any unfortunately, Owen has gone half mad after a moderate size, containing a small volume, if you scoundrelly prophet called Brothers, and I fear is will, will reach me free of expense. The inner too far gone in fanaticism ever to be of service to direction, Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh. Mr. Freeliterature, which is much to be regretted. Ritson ling is secretary to our post-office establishment died in a melancholy manner, having first, in a fit through Britain, and a man of literature of insanity, destroyed all his curious transcripts and I am possessor of a copy of your Einsiedler, and manuscripts. Previously, he disposed of his collec- was much flattered by finding the Scottish Ballads tion of books, which were very curious. I should had been of use to your researches. also explain that Robert Jamieson, editor of the I fear Mr. Douce will do no more for literature.

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His health is not good, and he has resigned a sit- such attire, - this is a disgrace. To make carpets uation which he had in the Museum, which seems is a credit; to sweep them, a shame. to intimate an intention not to write again. He is The coalheaver, begrimed and filthy, may deserve by far our most diligent investigator of the history our respect as he empties his bags into our cellar, but of popular fiction, but perhaps the habits of collect the clean and well-mannered footman who places ing minute information are rather inconsistent with them in our grate is a “pampered menial,” to be the power of generalizing and combining the deduc- held up to wearisome ridicule. Trades that involve tions which it affords.

disgusting sights and fætid smells, and days spent in I have not seen the Berlin collection of Kinder- sewers or slaughter-houses are affirmed (and so far, märchen, 1813, which I should like much to possess, justly,) to bear no moral taint. But offices, cleanly, but I have often read with delight the Volksmärchen and above all, kindly, each separate service directly of Musäus, and I recognize in the story of the Berg-tending to the comfort of a fellow-creature, are asGeist, at Rammelsberg, and several other tales, the serted to be unworthy of human beings. outlines of the stories of our nurseries and schools. The absurdity of such paradoxes might be left to I have also a very curious and miscellaneous collec-explode them in due time, were it not that their tion of books in German, containing the Gehornte currency is very obviously causing the evil which Siegfried, and other romantic tales. They were has been imagined. Domestic service is becoming collected by Mr. Weber, and amount to four vol- less really respectable, because it is less respected. umes. I do not know any one who knows more of The better class of persons who formerly engaged in Scottish popular fiction than I do myself, excepting it, knowing it to be an honest, and believing it to be the tales of the Highlands, with which I am less im- an honorable mode of supporting themselves, are mediately familiar. Any questions you can propose ceasing to undertake it, since they habitually find it on the subject I will answer with all the fidelity spoken of with disdain; while the bumbler class who and attention in my power. This is a long letter, still engage in it do so with that sense of dislike, and but I wish it to be accepted as a proof of my willing of sacrificing the more respectable for the more acceptance of the offer of yours, and of the esteem lucrative labor, which can hardly fail to be the bewith which I am, dear Sir,

ginning of a mercenary career. * No profession in the Your obedient Servant,

world, had it tenfold the pretensions to honor which

WALTER SCOTT. could belong to the simple duties of a household, ABBOTSFORD NEAR MELROSE,

could sustain itself without deterioration, in the face 29th April, 1814.

of such prejudice as is now turned against domestic I read the German language with facility, as you service. We all know familiarly how every walk in are so good as to use the Latin characters, but I dare life, even the ministry of religion, rises or falls in not attempt to write it.

fact, as it rises or falls in public estimation; how it is chosen by the able and well accredited, or left for

those who have no other choice; how it is pursued HOUSEHOLD SERVICE.

with pride and energy, or unwillingly followed with BY FRANCES POWER COBBE.

a constant reference to pecuniary reward. Servants It is not a little singular, that those who are fond form no exceptional class among human beings, and est of descanting on the intrinsic Dignity of Labor if, instead of upholding their business as one most should often be those who consider as degrading one useful and respectable, we run it down as derogatory of the most useful and kindly of all its applications. to the dignity of men and women, we have only While the old Roman and the Oriental deemed ease ourselves to blame if it daily fall into lower hands, and dignity to be wellnigh gynonymous, while our and be pursued in a baser spirit. Now that the northern ancestors thought war and the chase the old complaints about bad servants have risen to a sole occupation of freemen, and work of any kind sort of perennial public grievance, it may not be the portion of serfs; while the religion of Christen- amiss to pause, and ask whether for some years back dom itself was understood to teach that Providence the class of employers has not been busily engaged in ordaining labor pronounced a curse; — while in spoiling its own chances of obtaining good serthese ideas prevailed, it would not, indeed, have vants; and whether lofty declamations on one side, been surprising bad Household Service been held in and the pleasant jests of Punch on the other, have low esteem. But the remarkable paradox is, that not gone together to make numberless self-respecting during the last hundred years, wherein the old men and well-nurtured women shun a line of life views regarding work in general have undergone a | wherein they might have contributed probably more complete revolution, the public estimation of this than in any other way to the general well-being of one form of it, so far from rising with the rest, has the community. fallen very much below its former level. It was re

Let us take the thing on the highest ground at served for our generation, and for those among us once. English and American democrats affirm (or especially who glory in the exposure of the folly of at least assume in all discussions of the subject) that feudalism, and who daily exhort us to

domestic service has in it an intrinsic element, —

shall we call it of dependence or obedience? “Labor! All labor is. noble and holy,"

which renders it unfit to be undertaken by a human to proclaim also their infinite contempt for that la- being fully awake to the dignity of his, or her, bor, without which all the refinements of civilized nature. The manhood in a man and the womanlife would be at an end. It is, in the opinion of hood in a woman suffers, they think, by the duties these persons, noble to herd cattle, and (we presume) holy to butcher them in the shambles; but to * According to the Report attached to the Census of 1861, it

appears that the number of male servants in England and Wales

has increased since 1831 by 30,267, and that of females by 415,952; is a degradation. To weave our clothes in the loom,

the males having increased at a slower and the females at a faster

rate than the population. Comparing the Census of 1851 and that is honorable; but to give a helping hand (such as

of 1861, it would appear that not only have female servants mul

tiplied disproportionately to male, but the increase lies chiefly son might give to father, or sister to sister) to don among servants of the lower grades.

and conditions of household paid labor. Therefore puerile condition, — these we believe to be forms of the existence of such a thing as domestic service is obedience injurious to the moral health, truncating an evil to be reduced within the narrowest possible to the moral stature of men and women. compass, and hereafter to be abolished in the millen- ! But obedience which touches no case of connium of pure democracy by the joint aid of machin- science, and consists in performing a contract of ery, cookery shops, and the voluntary work of the service under direction of the person to be served, females of each family. Are these ideas true? Is has in it no moral element that we can discern this consummation either possible, or devoutly to be One man contracts to do for a stipulated sum a wished, if possible it be?

piece of work which occupies him a year, during Let it be granted cordially, that if service involve which he has no fresh directions to receive. Anothhuman degradation ; if a coachman or butler can be er contracts for the work of a week, and at the end but half a man, or a housemaid or dairymaid the takes a fresh order. Another has a day's task, an fraction of a woman, then indeed the institution of hour's, a minute's. The rapidity of the various diservice is a sin against humanity, and shame to the rections how the same or a fresh contract is to be community where it exists. No matter how useful fulfilled, has nothing in it to make it morally unit be, how much it may contribute to the comfort hurtful to build a house or to make a pair of boots : and physical ease of the whole wealthier class, it is and morally injurious to cook a dinner, or wait bea great moral wrong if it degrade the humblest, and hind a chair and hand plates as they happen to be every good man is bound to do his utmost to abolish | wanted. it forth with. Nay, we would go further than most of In numberless cases employments not reckoned in these reformers seem disposed practically to do, and any way menial involve the same form of contract, affirm that to employ our fellow-creatures in a way namely, that of agreeing for a certain price, to perwhich we believe involves their moral degradation, form work of a certain kind under continual direcis such an offence that nothing can justify us in do- tion. Not to speak of the army (the most honoraing it for a day, and that (granted the premises) ble but least free of all contracts of service), all every gentleman is bound to give up keeping horses sailors, laborers, shopmen, and hundreds more, perwhich he is not prepared to groom and drive for form their tasks continually directed by their emhimself; and every lady is called on to perform, in ployers and fellows; in many cases, far more directher household, the duties of cook, housemaid, and ed than is ever a well-trained cook, housemaid, or scullion, for the rest of her life. There seems to us butler. The idea that this point, then, of obedino escape from this conclusion, harsh though it may ence to continual orders constitutes & peculiar and be. Service is either morally innoxious and con- essential evil in domestic service is absurd. veys no degradation, or it conveys such degradation There is indeed, we hasten to admit, a form of doand is therefore grievously noxious. If it be the mestic obedience which is in truth unsuited to fulllatter, to bribe our fellow-ereatures, by liberal wages grown men and women, at all events, in the present and luxurious living, to undergo that pernicious relations of the different classes of society. A conmoral influence for our benefit, can be nothing short tract to do the service of the employer at his direcof a sin.

tion is one thing ; submission to orders ha ing nothBut we pause at the threshold, to ask what truth ing to do with his service, but regulating the private there is in this assertion, or assumption, that house and family affairs of the servant, is quite another. hold service is degrading? What grounds are there Here is the difficulty of the case, for some regulafor regarding it with contempt? The reply, so far tions of the servants' habits may be indispensable to as we can learn, is this: The conditions of it are ig- the comfort of the master and the order of his noble; and the persons who actually undertake it household. At this moment, the point where such are, as a matter of fact, deserving of small esteem. regulations should stop is naturally a matter of disLet us examine both these grounds.

pute, for the old theory of service, wherein the paThe first condition of service which provokes ob- triarchal idea was predominant, has left behind it jection, is that it frequently involves hourly and mo- customs and notions wholly foreign to the new the mentary obedience to the directions of the employer. ory wherein contract is all in all. The servant patuTo be ordered, for instance, to replenish the grate, rally and properly thinks of his contract only. The or to bring a cup of tea, or take the children out employer commonly remembers the rules of some walking, is held to be an infringement of the liberty parental patriarchate, and (if a woman) probably of the freeborn footman and nursery maid. And involves herself conscientiously in a maze of small though, in proportion as servants understand their tyrannies, baving her private views of the morality business thoroughly and perform it carefully, such of crinoline and “followers" at their root. The orders are reduced to a minimum, still the fact that transition, then, is troublesome, and some servants manservant and maidservant must “look to the may justly feel that the yoke of a contract which hand of their masters and mistresses" (albeit in no should fit as lightly as one for any other kind of very prayerful spirit just now), is an intrinsic ele- work, galls them because it is not properly adjusted. ment in domestic service, which, it is asserted, ren-By and by, however, all this will right itself; nay, ders it unfit for self-respecting persons.

from the present aspect of affairs, it would seem The writer has no intention of meeting this ob- that the peril of any servant in England, male or jection by using another and opposite cant of the female, being very seriously “put upon” (as they day, about the duty and beauty and sanctity of would describe it), by master or mistress, is not one “ Obedience.” Obedience, as common sense teaches which need greatly alarm us. The danger seems us, may be either good or bad in its influences on rather to lie in the opposite direction. the individual who obeys. The Jesuit's obedience, To argue generally that service is degrading, bewhereby he murders his own conscience of right cause, in a transition period, two essentially distinct and wrong; all monastic vows, whereby personal ideas of it are current side by side, is obviously abresponsibility is more or less abrogated; much con- surd. As well might we call the filial position de jugal and some filial obedience, whereby the full-grading; because, at the transition from boyhood to grown human conscience is made to lapse into the manhood, many a father forgets his son's age and

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treats him like a boy, when he feels himself a do not ask us, — do not insult us by asking us, – to man.

be lady's maids or housemaids. We cannot do anyThe second objection we have heard is the strange thing menial.one, that it is the fact of household services being So the cry goes round, and the result is quite paid which renders them dishonorable. Not that plain enough. Service is chosen now by those to other service, say digging a garden, is dishonorable whom it is Hobson's choice, and by them only. That because it is paid, but these special offices of cook- there is abundant justification for pointing at their ing, serving, bed-making, house-cleaning, in some faults, and hesitating to send a young man or womway become degrading if the person who performs an to join them in hall or housekeeper's room, we them receive wages for the same. The reason for are quite ready to admit. But, after all, in sober this notion (if reason it have at all) must needs be, earnest we ask, if the class of servants be worse that these domestic services are so palpably per- than it was, what other class of about the same sosonal and kindly, that to perform them from other cial level will the reformers please to point to as so motives than kindness and family affection seems to much superior in honesty, sobriety, chastity, and spoil them. There is something poetical in such an disinterestedness, as to warrant us in urging young idea; but assuredly what truth it may possess could lads and lasses to seek adınittance into it? Will only hold in a very different state of society from they learn honesty, for instance, among the small ours. The “laborer” here, as in the very highest shopkeepers, or sobriety at the licensed victuallers, and most sacred field of human work, is “worthy of or the social and humane virtues generally in the his hire”; nor are the services of the house degrad-trades' unions? Are there no households left whereed and made venal by being paid for, any more than in the moral atmosphere down stairs as well as the services of the pulpit, of the school-room, or the in the drawing-room is considerably more salubrious battle-field. Mercenary motives do not come in to than in nine places out of ten to which persons of spoil the preacher, the poet, the soldier, albeit few the rank of servants have access, and do no young can afford to pursue either calling unremunerated. women save housemaids fall into temptations, and There is no necessity that a servant should be more no men except butlers learn to drink? As to honmercenary than these, though he likewise has his esty, when we consider what are the temptations of wage; nay, we rejoice to say from actual experi- a servant, the constant sight of objects they may ence, we know many a servant as free from taint naturally want, and the facilities for theft without of mercenariness as the noblest of them all.

violence or much hazard of exposure, we may fearAgain, the very common but very stupid objec- lessly assert, that, with all their pilferings, their pertion to liveries cannot fairly be reckoned as included quisites, and percentages, the probity of servants in the general objection to service, since, taking is, on the whole, as great as, or greater than, that male and female servants together, probably not one of any other class of the same social grade. in thirty is called on to wear anything of the kind. A fair review of the case, then, seems to lead to

In our day, even for these, the good taste of the the conclusion that the prejudices entertained against present generation has nearly abolished what might domestic service are quite unjustified, either by any be felt as.gaudy and offensive, and has reduced the inherent dishonor in the occupation, or by any pecumatter to the rational rule, — that those servants liar moral delinquency to be traced in the characwhose duties require them to stand and pass among ters of those who have undergone its influence. A the guests of their employer should wear clothes righteous jealousy for the moral welfare of our felwhich easily distinguish them, as do those of rail- low-creatures has no real place in the controversy. way guards and porters, from passengers. To pre- Men and women are not degraded by being sertend that this is a degradation for the footman vants, and with perfectly safe conscience we may more than for the guard is to fall back on the origi- invite them to undertake such labors for our benal error of all, namely, that as service is degrading, hoof. the badge of it must be so. It is arguing in a circle Let us inquire, per contra, whether the abolito say domestic service is degrading because liveries tion of domestic service, in a millennium of bathare degrading, and liveries are degrading because rooms, trattoria dinners, and ladies-of-all-work, is a they mark domestic service. Let service be regard-thing to be wished, if possible, - or possible, if to be ed as it ought, and the footman's and the railway wished. official's dress will be as honorable the one as the There are in England, according to the last cenother.

sus, nearly 2 million and a quarter of domestics, But the objections to service as an honorable em- male and female. There are seven hundred thouployment do not rest on theory alone. They take sand general servants, seventy-seven thousand cooks, into consideration the actual moral and social status sixty-six thousand housekeepers, a hundred thousand of servants in England to-day, and the result is said housemaids, eleven thousand coachmen, and so on. to be highly unfavorable to the profession as one to | This million of men and women, under any change be adopted by the self-respecting poor. “ No," say of the social system, must, we presume, be expected our ultra-radical friends, — " let a man be anything, to earn their own living. They must, in some way, let him be an artisan, a shopman, a clerk ; only do contribute to the work of the world. Of course not make the possible angel' a flunkey to hang the foretellers of the millennium above described inbehind a carriage. Let a girl be apprenticed to a sist, as a special feature of it, on a high education milliner, and ruin her health, if needs must, with to be given to all classes; and we will assume that overwork and hot rooms, but do not make her brush all the million who, under the present régime, are the softest hair or fasten the dress of the kindest servants, knowing only how to read and write their lady in London.” “ No," again say, in shriller tones, own language, perhaps rather imperfectly, will be a score of impoverished gentlewomen seeking wildly thoroughly well-informed persons, acquainted with for any chance of escape from the threatened work- French, Latin, or German, and able to play the house, “ make us governesses, albeit we have never piano, or sketch in water-colors. Granted all this, been educated. Make us paid companions, albeit how are they to earn their bread if service be abolwe know no form of service is half so irksome. But ished? In those days, culture will be a drug in the

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