The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-05 00:00:00

DOUBT DBMS AND COURT annsmoym

The Post joins Mr. Bright in his attack ise our modern
court drew. In this age of beards and moustaches, the
dress of Charles Surface bosom*, quikabsurd, for a shaven
facelis with it a sine qua non of decency and bienseance.
The beg for the wig behind the coat is another anomaly in
times of close crops and of Lair•brushing by machinery. If
we are doomed to choose • fancy dress, certainly that now
arbitrarily fixed upon is the least suitable to the tone and
manners of the day. Full dress should and ought
to signify simply the best dress of the period
at which we live. At the present time, if • man
is asked to dine with the Queen, he wears the usual
white neckcloth, evening dress coat, and shorts and silks or
tights. That is the fullest dress of the fashion of the day,
and that ought also, unless a better dress can be devised,
to be a suitable costume in which to appear at court or at a
Speaker's levee. Indeed, as far as the court is concerned,
we need a revision of the whole system. Instead of the
indecent crush and rash to a necessary ceremony, we
should look for proper receptions in fitting palaces
where space and sociability may add interest to the
dignity of the function. If court ceremonies, already the
merest forms, are not to sink to something in which
inherent absurdity will invite neglect, we must look to see
the aristocracyef England invited to a palace worthy of
the name, with room to move in and apses to approach
the royal person ; gentlemen presenting themselves, as do
the ladies, in the dress of the time ; and opportunity
gi►en for the interchange of those social amenities without
which • crowd at • royal residence exhibits, like other
crowds, its worst characteristics, and becomes but • pushing
rude mob, not the more respectable from being attired in
comically inappropriate clothing.

A Cabinet Council is appointed to be held to-day
(Monday) in Downing-street, at 2 o'clock.
" Although " writes the " Flaneur " of the Star,
"it is as yet very early in the season, the committee. of
the various literary and artistic charities are settling upon
the presidents for their respective asuriversary dinners.
Mr. Cherie, Dickens takes the &sir on Ash Wednesday,
the 14th inst., at the dinner of the Dramatic and Eques-
trian Sick Fund, and the occasion being Valentine's Day,
Mr. Dialreas will have a special opportunity for the display
of his never-failing w t and fancy. Mr. M'Cullagh Tomos,
long connected with jou-nations, fitly presides over
the ditner of the Nesrisvendore Benevolent In-
stitution on the 20th March next. The Lord Mayor,
whose dramatic proclivities are well known, will be the
president at the dinner of the General Theatrical Fuld on
the Monday in Passion Week, and either the Duke
d'Aumele or Mr. Anthony Trollop* will take the chair at
the festival of the Artiste' Benevolent Fond. The chair at
the dinner of the Royal Medical College will be worthily
filled by Sir William Ferguson."
The meeting of the Scientific Association held
lest Tuesday at the Palace of the Observatory, Paris,
was attesded by a large number of ladies as well OA by
the itehatitio celebrities of that learned body. The Asso-
ciation now consists of 5,266 members. flasks to their
liberal subscriptions the Association has been enabled to
establish observatories in remote parts of Frans*, and to
supply these establishments with expensive instruments
as well as to open lecture-rooms at various seaports where
gratuitous lectures are delivered on meteorology and other
saientifie topics tending to the eislighteument of seamen
of all classes. The association has only been two years
in existence. Scientific gangrenes are to be held this year
at Meta, Bordeaux. and Marseilles.

The death of Prince Odo, like that of D'Azeglio,
was taken as as occasion for demonstr►tions in Venetia.
The promenades were deserted and (missal services were
reform& The police bantered whoa all was ever.