PARIS FASHIONS FOR APRIL.
[From the Illtutrated London Newt, Mar. 27.] The fashions of 1847 will be remarkable for their extreme suraptuousness, in Paris, as well as in London, the richest materials and most elaborate patterns are only in demand ; simplicity is not the taste of the day, but is superseded by the most recherche elegance. Ball dresses, although they are of the lightest materials, are intricate in their designs ; and it may be said that they resemble sovfflets of tulle and gossamer. A new artiste, patronised Uy many ladies of fashion, has made a great sensation in high Parisian society^; the style of her ball dresses has been very successful, at the most fashionable parties. Madame Marie it. the fortunate artiste, and we lose no time in submitting to our readers some of the latest specimens of her ingenuity. The first of the costumes represented in our illustration consists of a slip of taffetas a" Italic, of bright yellow ; and of two petticoats of yellow crape. The first petticoat is trin.med with plaits of fulle, nearly to the height of the knees, these plaits* having satin points : the second petticoat, which falls a little below this trimming, is ornamented iv the same manner, upon the sides only. The corsage is draped before and behind. The coiffure and the bouquets of the corsage, are of red mallow flowers, or wild poppies. The other costume is a robe of watered celestial blue, trimmed with lace, and an apron of the latter material. A small hat, of white crape, named petit-bord, ornamented with two feathers, competes the costume. "We may, also, mention from the r&ertoire of the same artiste, a ball dress, composed of a white latin slip, over which are worn two petticoats of tulle : the first is trimmed below with flounces of tulle, continued in the form of an aeron, but narrower considerably as they rise towards the waist. The second petticoat, which 'alls somewhat below the tulle flounces, is open in front, to show the apron ; and is confined on each side by a ribbon, in a bow, the long ends of which fall over the upper flounce. The corsage is draped before and
behind. The coiffures of flowers are generally in garlands ; but a favourite arrangement is in _tufts on each side. In the vreaths of foliage are diamonds set in flowers, of long aiguilettes. Natural flowers are much worn as the perfection of elegant simplicity, when wreathed in the coiffure, made into a bouquet for the corsage, or to be carried in the hand. Diamonds are frequently introduceJ among garlands of natural flowers, but oftener in wreaths of foliage. The hair is worn in plain bands very closely in front, and raised over the ear j ; and in curls, smooth in black hair, and crispee's in light. The back hair is worn in a double row of plaits and wreaths. Sometimes, for full dress, two or three ribbon shells are worn amidst the twisted hair. The other ornamental coiffures are turbans, petits bords, and lace ; and nearly all these fashions are copied from ancient pictures of the Spanish, Italian, French, and Englisji schools. Among them are the coiffures d, la Marie Stuart ; caps ct la Reine de Navarre ; bonnets Pomf adour ; aud Sevillanos, or Andalouses, of black lace.
The sum of £12,000 is vested in the undermentioned religious institutions under the will of the late Mr. John Wilkinson, of High Wyconibe, Bucks, who died on the 24th of December last, and such bequests are pa , able on the decease of his widow, in the following proportions, viz : — To the British and Foreign Bible Society, £3,000 : London Missionary Society, £2,000 ; Church Missionary Society, £1,500; Baptist Missionary Society, £1,500; Wesleyan Missionary Society, £1,000; Religious Tract Society, £1,000; London Association in aid of Missions of the United Brethren, called Moravians, £1,500; Pastoral Aid Society, £250 ; Irish Society of London for Promoting the Education and Religious Instruction of the native Irish through the medium of their own language, £250. A fire, involving the loss of property valued at many thousand pounds sterling, occurred, at Mr. Beihell's naptha and creosott works and saw-mills, on the banks of the river Thames, about midway between the Nine Elms Railway terminus aud the Red- House, Battersea. The engine-house, rectifyinghouse, saw-mill, about 14,000 railway sleepers, and a large quantity of pitch, tar, &c, a ere totally destroyed. S nil- house nearly destroyed. Much damage was also done to the neighbouring property. A correspondent of the Gardener's Chronicle states that pickling-jars buried iv the ground, with the neck-holes even with tbesurlace, make admirable mouse-traps in gardeua. There should be a little water in the jars.
Lord Hardinge on Railways in India. — On Saturday .was printed, by order of the House ot Commons, a copy of railway reports hum India. There are seven papers in the document, the last of which is an important communication horn the Governor-Gen-eral, Lord Haid.nge, dated the 28th July la*t, wherein his Excellency states his opinion on the proposed Indian railways, and also his confidence that the speculation will entirely fail, unless it be largely and liberally encouraged by the East In<:ia Company. The following observations ot Lord Ilardinge show the importance of the proposed u dertaking: — " The limitation of the Company's liberality may he safely calculated by the positive and palpable advantages which a railway from Calcutta to Delhi would confer, and it need only be guaranteed to be forthcoming when an efficient and daily communication by railway sha'l have been actually completed between the two extremitie , and measures have been taken to ensure that it shall be permanently kept up. 'The calculation of the contribution to be given would be based on the political, military, and cortimercul advantages which would be derived from the completion and full operation ol such a line. In a political point of view, the daily delivery ot the mails from Delhi to Calcutta in sixty hours, instead of eight days — the electric telegraph communicating imjortant orders in a few minutes from one extremity to the other — would give the govern men t gieat additional powers, approaching almost to übiquity, as compared with the system ot dak runners and dak travelling. Such a facility would decide the question of the Goverror-Gencral and the members of government moving up to the frontier; or, if it were necessary to move rapidly up, the return would be equally speedy. The vigour, the confidence, and the economy with which the government would be carried on, would be greatly increased. In a military point of view, 1 should estimate the value of moving troops and stores wiih great rapidity would be equal to the services ot lour regiments of infantry. This reduction of military establishments would be a saving of £50,000 a-year on the lowest stale. When the Lancashire Yeomaury were moved to Birmingham, they completed 120 miles in three hours, rode their horses quite fresh to the scene of the disturbance, Laving accomplished a distance of one hundred and thirty miles in five hours, and being again at their houses on the following day. In this country, where no man can tell one week what j the next may produce, the facility of a rapid concentration of infantry and artillery and stores may be the cheap prevention of an insurrection, the speedy termination of a war, or the safety of the empire. I need not enter into the commercidf and agricultural advantages, which would repay tie exchequer for a large portion of the outlay contributed by the state. Ali these points are so well known and so generally admitted, that I will merely conclude by stating my opinion, that on military considerations alone the grant of one million sterling, or an annual contribution of five lacs of rupees, may be contributed to the great line, when completed, frcm Calcutta to Delhi, and a pecuniary saving be effected by a diminution of military establishments, arising out of the facility with which the troops would be moved from one point to another." A return of the number of commissioned officers of all grades on the navy list on the Ist of January, 1846 (moved for by Sir C. Napier), exhibits a li&t of 66 admirals, 75 rear-admirals, 82 superannuated rear-admi-rals, 851 captains, 36 retiied captains, 812 commanders, 80 lieutenants superannuated with the rank of commander, and 4014 lieutenants. An American mechanic has invented a brick-making machine which presses bricks by cyliu !er, like a printing-machine, and can turn out 40,000 bricks of the best quality in a day. The Great Western steam-ship was offered for sale at Bristol, on Wednesday, by Messrs. Fergus and Son, auctioneers. Her cost was staled to have been £61,000, and only 4.20,000 being bid, she was withdrawn. The reserved fixed price was> understood to be £-25,000. The editor of the Toronto Herald apologises for the late appearance ol bib paper, one fine morning in January, the paper, after being " wetted down," having been frozen together in a solid mass. The Allgemeine Zeitung informs its readers that a society has been established in Hull for discouraging tight lacing. The German editor is pleased to inflict on this" harmless association the following formidable title :—: — " Jungcfrauenzimmerdarchschwindsuchttoedtungigegenvercin." Otherwise, the " Antikiiling -young - women-by - a- lingering-death-society." All the inhabitants of the smsll town of Egelsbach, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, about 1,400 in number, including all the municipal authorities, have demanded permission from the Government to be allowed: to emigrate to America.
A deaf and dumb person being asked his idea of forgiveness, look a pencil and wrote, " It is the sweetness which flowers yield when trampled upon." The bureau of longitudes of Paris lias come to an agreement with tie principal astronomers of Europe, MM. Gausz, Eucke, Strurz, and Herschell, to give the name of Neptune to the new planet discovered under the indications of M. Le Venier. Tlie planet will be denoted on the astronomical chart by the sign of a trident. Out of 60,000 persons who made the last pilgrimage to Mecca, no fewer than 20,000 have died of the cholera. The Manchester Courier states, as the result of careful inquiry, that out ol 179 mills at Manchester, 99 are working full ume, 68 short time, and 17 have stopped ; while out of a total of 41,000 hands 22,000 are worked full time, 13,500 short time, and 5,500 have stopped. It adds, that the average number of working-hours in the day at Manchester is under seven ; the average at Oldham, Ashton, and the surrounding districts, about eight. Mr. Bright's mills at Rochdale have been closed for six weeks. At a meeting of the proprietors of the Great Britain steamer, held at Bristol on Thursday, a letter fiom Captain Claxton was read, detailing his proceedings in Dundrum Bay during theaime he had been engaged in foiming the breakwater to protect the ship in the manner recommended by Sir I. K. Brunei, who writes thai Captain Claxton has succeeded in so far protecting the ship that she has been comparatively unaffected by violent seas, which, there is iio doubt whatever, would otherwise have seriously damaged her ; and that the directors may nq,w calculate with tolerable certainty upon preserving her without further injury until the finer, or at least more settled, weather sets in. — Guardh n t Mar, 7. An account has been received by the French government oi the assassination of M. E. D'Ossery, who, in company with M. De Castlenau, was travelling in South America, exploring the hitherto unknown parts of that country. The assassins (four in number) had been arrested. Accounts from theF:roe Isles state that on the 14th anil 15th of January a fall of fine ashes took place there. It was fiist observed on the wool of the sheep ; but was very slight compared with the fall of e&hes in 1845. Yet, as the wind was blowing south and south-east at the time, it is supposed that some considerable eruption of Mount Hecla was the cause of the phenomenon. A Welsh paper announces the death of a woman, named Sarah Jones, and says that if she had lived until the 10th of April, she would have attained her 107 th year ; and, notwithstanding her great age, she retained her faculties unimpaired neaily to the last. A fearful coal-pit accident, attended with the 10-s of nearly pighty lives, took place on Friday afternoon, at the Great Ardsley Main, or Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley. .About three o'clock, several persons near the mouth of the pit were alarmed by a teirific explosion from the shaft, which was followed by an eruption of smoke, timber, coal, stonp, &c, resemb/ing the eruption of a volcano. There had been no previous indications of danger up to the very moment of the explosion. The pit was considered to be in an ordinary state ot safety, with the exception of one bank on the west side of a broadgate which was between an upper and lower seam, and about seventeen feet in length. The men were instructed to use great caution in passing that part of the pit with lights. The parties who were in the immediate neighbourhood of this place have perished. None remain to give an account of the origin of the accident. Immediately after the explosion, Mr. George Wilson, one of the managing proprietors, with several men, went down into the pit, to ascertain the state of the case, and to render the sufferers such aid as might be within human reach. Unhappily, the lime of the explosion was when the full force of men and boys, to the number of ahout 100, were working in the pit. In descending the pit, they heard groans and cries ot distress from the sufferers in all directions ; and on reaching the bottom, some of the men who had gathered round the shaft assailed them with exclamations of gratitude. Several of the men still living were lound to be severely wounded by the concussions they had sustained during the explosion. Others were in a state ot insensibility. Twenty three were drawn out of the pit alive in a short period, and about an hour afterwards three others. The melancholy search was continued, and before twelve at night forty-one others were taken out dead. Being convinced that all who had not then been found must be dead, and the state of the pit being such as to render it very unsafe to continue the search, Mr. Wilson and his assistants re-a&ceuded the shaft. Measures were then taken for ventilating the pit. j, The Queen of the West, emigrant ship, has been wrecked on the coast,of .Cuba. She had 2 20 French and English emigrants on board,
of whom 50, including 18 females and 20 childien, and the captain were lost. The French Government have entered into negotiations with the Pope for more effectually preventing the Jesuits from establishing schools in France. The Duke of Nassau has placed at the disposal of the charitable Committees of his btates the corn in the granaries of his domains at the price lor which it could have been sold last autumn. The Sultan has ordered the abolition of the Constantinople slave markets. By mixing coke with coal a much better heat is obtained, both for cooking and otherwise, and a considerable saving effected in the expensive article of fuel.
London. — " What is most striking inLondon is its vastness. It is the illimitable feeling that gives it a special character. London is not grand. It possesses only one of the qualifications of a grand city, size ; but it wants the equally important one, beauty. It is the union of these two qualities that produced the grand cities — the Romes, the Babylons, the hundred portals of the Pharoahs ; multitudes and magnificence ; the millions infliunced by art. Grand cities are unknown sinr.p thebeautilul has ceased to be the principle of invention. Paris, ot modern capitals, has aspired to this character : but, if Paris be a beauulul city, it certain'y is not a grand one ; it* population is too limited, and, from the nature of their dwellings, they cover a comparative ly small space. Constantinople is picturesque ; nature has furnished a sublime site, but it has little architectural splendour, and jou reach the environs with a fatal facility. London- overpowers us v.h'u its vastness. Place a Forum or an Acropolis in its centre, and the effect of the men opolitan mass which now has neither bead nor heart, instead of being stupilying, would be ennobling. Nothing moie complete y represents a nation than a public building. A memberof Pailiament only represents at the mostthe united constituencies but the palace of the Sovereign, a National Gallery, or a Museum baptised with the name of the country, these are monuments to which all should be able to look up with pride, and which should exerci.-e an elevating influence upon the spirit of the humblest. What is their influefrce in London ? Let us not criticisf what all condemn. But how remedy the evil? What is wanted in aicliitecture, as in so many things, is — a man. Shall we fit d a refuge in a Committee of Taste ? Escape from the mediocrity ot the one to the mediocrity ol many ? We only multiply our feebleness, ond aggravate our deficiencies. But one suggestion might be made. No profession in England has done its duty until it has furnished its victim. The pure administration of justice dates from the deposition of Macclesfield. Even our boasted navy never achieved a great victory until we shot an Admiral. Suppose an architect were hanged ? Terror has us inspiration, as well as competition." — D'lsraeli.
Very Considerate. — Monsieur Guizot kindly told us in the Chamber of Deputies that " France has no intention of turning the Mediterranean into a French lake." He should have extended the information a little further, and have told us that France has no thoughts at the present of making England her Botany Bay. —
Scandal Confuted. — A gentleman was expatiating rather severely oij tiie inhospitable frugality ot Lord Chancellor Eldon, and observed that he was so very parsimonious iie never haidly gave a bottle ot wine to a friend. " I beg your pardon," said a young barrister, " I have known his lordship to give a bottle of wine to half a dozen friends."
The Disappointed Deputy. — A good story is toM of a French deputy, who, wishing the other day to obtain a small place for a female domestic, set about the business with vast dexterity. " I will ask," said he "at the same time, something unconscionable. That will of course be refused ; but, to soften the refusal, they will grant the smaller boon. I will ask for a peerage 1 and a bureau de tabac." He did so : but the poor deputy was taken in, for lie was made a peer !
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZSCSG18470825.2.6
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 216, 25 August 1847, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
3,140PARIS FASHIONS FOR APRIL. New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 216, 25 August 1847, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.