COURT ETIQUETTE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 18, 15 July 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

COURT ETIQUETTE.

IN THE TIME OF THE GEORGES. A curious paragraph printed in the London observer of a hundred years ago —the date of the paper, numbered 1006, price 6y 2 d, is "Sunday, May <li, 1811" throws a picturesque light on court usage in the time of the Georges. "The Prince Regent," so it runs, "held a court at Carlton House on Thursday, which was numerously attended. Mr. Lancaster had the nonor of being presented to his Royal Highness, and to receive the promise of his gracious patronage and support. Being a Quaker, Mr. L's hat wag, by his permission, taken off by one of the attendants, and the court etiquette of kneeling when he presented a plan of his school dispensed with." Thus, by taking thought, comments Sir Henry Lucy in the Sydney Morning Herald, the British Constitution remained inviolate. To a certain extent history fifty-seven years later repeated* itself. When John Bright, in 1868, joined the Gladstone Ministry as President of the Board of Trade, he founa that the Windsor uniform is imperatively necessary in the performance of court duties inseparable from ministerial office. On State visits to Sovereignty, whether at dinners, balls or levees, also at sessional dinners at Speaker's Court, the integrity and prosperity of the Empire demand the donning of a strictly ordered uniform John Burns, whose highest sartorial ambition was once crowned by possession of a straw hat, has taken to the custom as genially as a duck takes to water. The Quaker conscience of John Bright revolted against it. In the end a compromise was effected. The President of the Board of Trade surrendered in the matter of coat and trousers, even of the cocked hat. But he drew tne line at the sword. Concession was graciously made on this point, and he alone of the Queen's Ministers presented himself on ceremonial occasions unembarrassed bv a dangling sword. J h h