Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-20 00:00:00

MADAME LOLA MONTEZ LECTITRE,

LAST NIGHT.

An audience, crowding every part of the Concert-hall
to overflowing, awaited Madame Montez, last night. The
hall and galleries were filled long before the hour for
commencing the lecture. There was a little too much
license displayed in repeating the pleasantry, endurable
for once, of cheering and applauding every new corner on
the platform ; and in the instances of ladies making their
appearance, it wasicarried to a length alto7,ether improper
and unjustifiable. The directors of the hall will do well
to see that this rather uproarious species of merriment is

not allowed to become as tolerated usage there. When
Madame Montez made her appearance, she was loudly
applauded. The subject was " The Comic Aspect
of Fashion"—a theme which afforded scope for

a much more piquant and amusing treatment
than that of the preceding lecture. In opening,
Madame Montez said, it was a melancholy reflection,
that fashion owed its origin to the sins of mankind, and
commenced in the garden of Eden. At that period,
fashion was a somewhat simple and very innocent affair.
The twisted foliage of trees and the skins of beasts were
the only garments which then clothed the human race ;
and the ornaments for a long time worn were the wild
flowers plucked from the bush, the rich berries from the
tree, or the sweet shells from the beech. The only tinge
which a lover could find on the cheek of his beloved one
was the peachy bloom—the only diamonds then existing
were the lovely brightness of her eye. But this age of
positive simplicity and innocence seemed not to have lasted
very long. Accumulating wealth soon introduced tastes
and habits of luxury, and then the various products of the
loom, the Tyrian mystery of dye and the riches drawn
from mines were all taxed to give embellishment and
beauty to women's mien, till the natural charms were at
last forgotten in the artificial. From the days of
Adam the first to the present time, fashion had always
played a most conspicuous part, and even more than
the laws themselves had regulated, the modes of life.

Fashion was a most tremendous and awful tyrant, not
merely deciding the cut of our garments, the very colours
of our dress, and the hours of our repasts ; but by its
prodigious sway it changed our feelings, our affee-
tiona, and even our principles, to suit the time and place
of 'its abode. Comfort, happiness, and health itself
,were sacrificed to over-ruling powers—it controlled the
shape of our cradles and of our coffins. A very old
fashioned gentleman named Reason, might whisper that
it was cowardice thus to bend before it; his younger
brother, Common Sense, cry_ shame upon it ; and the
youngest member of that respectable family, Good
Taste, might dare to put in a plea, but all in vain.
In France, Italy, Germany, and most other nations
of Europe, the reign of fashion was mostly confined
to dress and ornaments, and amusements. But in
England and the United -States it extended to every
department of life, even to morality and religion ; for
in America, unless the preaching of the Gospel it-
self went tricked out in the richest silks and velvets,
wore kid gloves and the finest broadcloth, very little
confidence would be reposed in its ability to lead a soul
to heaven (loud applause). But it must be confessed
that fashion had performed some wonderful feats in
banishing from the language vulgar words that used to
be common in England, but more especially in America.
. That which was once called " cheating" and " knavery"
was now known in the United States, as " the best end
of a bad bargain ;" and the coarse, disgusting word "liber-
tine" had given way to such very genteel expressions as
" gallantry," 4' gay fellow," " con, " &c., &c. Fashion,
could give wealth power over talent and virtue, and until
its mighty gods were dethoroned opulence would
always obtain credit for as many good qualities as it
would be able to pay for—the calf would be worshipped
because it was a golden one—and in Fame's bright
temple there would be always a niche large enough for
rich and fashionable boobies. (Laughter and applause.)
Her experience •of the world generally had given her
unlimited faith in the power of fashion to do 'everything
except to make man and woman happy : that it could not
do. There is a jnstice of God which reaches the gay
delusion at last, and says " thither shalt thou go and no
farther." (Applause.) The ills of dissipation and sin
were not less real for the gauds and glitter surrounding
them; form and ceremonies were only the covering of
real life which could not affect the palpitating heart
and son]. within : you might embroider misery but
you could not change its nature. (Applause.) Dull-
ness was not banished because rendered magnificient—
stupidity never yet was drowned by exhillirating draughts
of fashion—ennui was the terrible devil of the fashionable
world. The history of the freaks of fashion would lead to

the impression that his satanic majesty must have had this
department under his m ost especial protection in all past
ages (laughter and applause). Having referred to some of
the most striking 'vagaries of fashion at different !eriods,

Madame Monte; said we laughed at savages for Wearing

nuggets of gold, and other precious metals, in their nos-
trils, but was the sight more ridiculous than the same
thing when worn among ourselves in women's ears ? She
was by no means certain that husbands would not be far
more manageable if they had rings in their noses (loud
laughter.) Only make such a thing fashionable, and
they would see it. It would afford material for a long
lecture were she to trace the history of the fashions which
were invented for the purpose of hiding somebody's im-
perfections. (Laughter.) Isabella, the wife of the Arch-
duke Albert, vowed, before the siege of Ostend. that she
would never change the garments she then wore until
the place was taken. The siege continued for three years
and sixty-eight days, and during this time she reli-
giously kept her oath. (Laughter and applause.) In this
long period her linen of course became changed from
white to yellow, and from that circumstance the .colour
of linen in these days was immediately changed to yellow,
under the name of " Isabella linen." There was reason
to fear that "Isabella linen " was yet worn to some
extent, but it was far from being fashionable. (Loud
laughter.) Starched neck-cloths were not long since
fashionable, and the fashion was still adhered to by
some of the clergy. (Laughter.) They were invented
by Brummel to annoy the Prince Regent. They
puzzled the washerwoman—drove man): men to the
i
point of tutting their throats n their attempts to
gain the experience of the gentleman but the
great Brummel kept the secret until he fled from
England, when he left it a legacy to his country,
having written on a pieee of paper these emphatic words.
" Starch makes the man." (Laughter.) Men in all ages
were just as ridiculously devoted to fashion as women.
Tight pantaloons came into vogue at the same time .as
the small bonnets, and of the two pantaloons were the
more ridiculous. What a frightful sight to see thousands
of men straddling through the streets with little
crooked legs and tight-drawn pantaloons. (Laughter.)
In the time of Elizabeth, as now, hoops were open very
wide at the bottom, and small upwards, making a lady not
unlike a cone or an extinguisher. About the year 1750
the hoops were fifteen or sixteen feet wide, giving a lady
the appearance of an inflated balloon ready for ascension.
But one such woman could walk down the street at a
time, and two would fill an omnibus to suffocation.
(Laughter.) Instead of grumbling and complaining, as
men did now, of ladies' hoops, they ought to be most
profoundly thankful that there was so much breathing
space left them after a woman had taken what she wanted
absolutely for her skirts. The present fashion was
adopted in the glorious Elizabethean age. But although
men ridiculed hooped skirts now—which, by the by, she
thought was a subject which they had no business to
meddle with at all (laughter) - there was no doubt but
that hoops were saving the lives of hundreds and hundreds
of women who would have been killed, as thousands
were before them, by the old custom of wearing six or
eight heavy starched petticoats. (Applause:) There were
millions of women in their graves upon whom, had
coroner's inquestS been held, the juries might have
returned a verdict, " Died of starched petticoats."
Madame Montez contrasted Eastern habits and customs
with those of England and • America—instancing the
open sale of beautiful females, which she said was
not more repugnant to the feelings of eastern nations
than the European system of training girls for
the great matrimonial market —or even, than the
European lady's habit of exhibiting a bare neck and
bare shoulders. She referred to the legendary origin of
- small feet among Chinese women; to the original intro-
duction of the Italian opera, and the laborious efforts
made by votaries of fashion to be thought admirers of it ;
to pretended admiration of the fine arts ; and many other
peculiarities and follies of fashionable life. Sip declared
that a penalty was attached to a servile devotion to
fashion, and that nature exacted of those who spent their
days in the observance of forms and outward show of
fashion that they should lose the power of understanding
and enjoying the beautiful and charming simplicity of
nature herself. (Applause.)
At the conclusion, Madame Montez was loudly and
repeatedly applauded.

THE ISLE OF MAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY.—The new
company is proceeding very satisfactorily with its pre-
liminary labours. Shares covering a sum larger than the
capital required have, we understand, already been ap-
plied for.—Manx Sun.
CHINESE MISSION AT AMOY.—The annual meeting of
the Chinese Mission of the English Presbyterian Church
was held at Glasgow, on Monday, in Free St. Matthew's
Church—the Rev. )r. Miller in the chair. There was a
good attendance. The Rev. Dr. James Hamilton of
London delivered an address on the claims of the Chinese
Mission field, and was followed by Dr. Delaporte, medical
missionary from Swatuw. It was stated that the collec-
tions for the past year from the Glasgow district had
amounted to £ll2. An urgent appeal was made for more
iberal contributions.