Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-18 00:00:00

LADIES TO THE REAR

Dear girls, when you pass down the aisle of a church,
walk behind the gentlemen of your party. If you walk in
front of them, you infringe a principle of the Latin
grammar. We cannot say how ; but so it is, and qr.
Gresley is our authority. Mr. Gresley " has seen with
pain ladies marching into church, or to the communion
table, before their husbands." Err no longer, beauties
of England—Leicestershire especially--but, with meek
Crows, pelsive eyes, penitential steps, allow precedence
to the broadcloth, and do not march, ter—again quoting
Gresley—" the masculine gender is more wet thy than the
feminine." Pace aux dailies is a pagan motto. Of course,
as men, we hold Mr. Gresley to be right, and think
ourselves much more worthy then any women
whatever (in fact, than any other men, if we
might say so), but there is one fashion we would not
willingly let die. It is an exquisite delight to see your
own Euphrosyne (or any one else's) a few steps ix
front—light-footed, moving like aswan, carrying her head
like Nourmahal, disclosing between the bonnet. and the
scat f a little milky way of neck, and, albeit, clouded by
crinoline, still a form of grace and majesty. There are
good moral reasons why she should walk before you. If
she walked behind, you, or Mr. Gresley. like another
Orpheus, might look back to the sweet Eurydice, and
then good manners might be infringed, althouth the Latin.
Grammar would be ()bevel Whereas, with Eurydice in
front, Orpheus may look seriously ibmard, and have no
temptation to turn a restless head upon a willing neck, to
carry a wandering eye in search of her, "just to see if she
be coming:" besides, shoal.] the Gresley rule be
admitted, the elegance of life would all be gone. Women,
with their 11)wer-decked heads, and figures lost amid
tinted tissue, cast a rosy cloud between the eye and the
unpicture•tpe abominations of manly costume; not to
mention the patent fact, that very few men have legs or
bodies fit to be seen. Is it not so, 51r. Gresley ? But Mr.
G:esley has a decided opinion that ladies are too forward
iu their manners, anal that they should be disciplined
(perhaps by Oriental methols) into an Oriental habit of
yielding precedence to their lords. In lint), when the
Ab•aot of Croxden baptised the child of Johanna de
Fuenival, did any nurse, or aunt, or even Johanna herself,
presume to lift the infant out of the font ? No. That
was the modern practice, and he (Mr. Gresley) thought
the modern practice quite wrong." The honoured task
was left to the Abbot of Rocester, and the matrons and
maidens stood at a demure distance, while the nobility of
creation occupied its right and proper " conspicuesity."
Mr. Gresley's oration against the impertinence of
women (reported in has' week's Athe,iceunz) will do good
—if women will adopt the Rajpoot idea, and walk with
the little-footed humility of damsels in Caina. But if
they will not, why the world will wag on as before, and
Amazons will continue to " march."

Joy o thosa warlike women, which .o long
Can from all men their dignities withhold !
An shame Cu you. 0 men, which boast you are strong
And valiant hearts, in thoughts less hard thati bold!

We perfectly agree with Mr. Gresley, the Latin grammar,
and the Chinese writer, Pan-houi-pan, that a " breathing
rose" ought to be wrapped in a coarse cloth, set to play
with a tile, compelled to walk like a Fingo behind her
husband, and taught that her only duty in life is to
abstain from vexing her friends. -A man ought to live on
pearls (if he likes them), receive thy salutes of womanly
humility, and be careful to " m Arch " in front of his wife
up to the communion table.—Leader.