ENGLISH COSTUME.

No. 1.-EVENING SHAWL DRESS. A rich Paris-brown French silk shawl robe, with short full sleeves, made to sit very much off the shoulders; worn over a white satin body with long sleeves. The hair divided on the crown of the head, curled in ringlets in the neck behind, and on the right side of the face, with a small bunch of curls on the left side of the head; a band of diamonds, or coloured stones (with a cornelian clasp or brooch), is worn round the head; diamond earrings; Persian scarf of green silk; white satin shoes; and white kid gloves.

No. 2.-EVENING FULL DRESS. A white satin, or fire India muslin, round dress, made short, and scolloped round the bottom, which is finished with a gold twist, made to sit very high over the neck; ornamented with a full rack of white crape, or lace; long sleeves laced with gold twist, and small gold drop buttons, the sleeves scolloped to correspond with the bottom of the dress, and ornamented with a gold cord; a gold net, or Persian silk sash, encircles the waist. The hair divided on the front of the forehead, carled in ringlets on the left side of the face, and in small full curls on the right; a pearl band worn strait over the front of the forehead, with a gold clasp in the centre; the hind hair in very full curls, and confined with a pearl comb. Pearl earrings; white kid gloves; white satin shoes, with gold rosettes; tippet of white swansdown.

Brussels point veil shaded, without concealing, her lovely face. Her robe was of fine French lawn, let in round the bottom with lace in the device of bunches of flowers; her shoes were of black kid, bound to correspond with the dress. We observed that her stockings were of silk, with very simple clocks, and perfectly plain on the instep.-A young lady who wɛ understood to be her daughter, wore a spenser of the same colour, over a robe of the like materials to the one already described; on her head she wore a woodland chip hat, simply tied down with rather a broad ribband like her spenser. Both ladies had Limerick gloves.

2. A green and yellow shot pelisse, lined with yellow, and trimmed round the bottom with a broad black lace; a bonnet to correspond, with a bunch of liburnum drooping over the face, on the left side, in the style of a feather; this we considered strikingly elegant, and had rather a novel appearance.

3. A mantle of amethyst coloured sarsnet, edged with a yellow vandyke satin trimming, tied loosely round the neck with yellow ribband; the bonnet of yellow satin, ornamented with heartsease; shoes, purple trimmed with yellow; gloves of York tau.

4. A lilac sarsuet pelisse, trimmed round the bottom with a broad white figured satin ribband, the collar composed of alternate folds of white and lilac, the front crosses the bust in the Grecian style, and is confined by a band of the same edged with white; a white satin bonnet, ornamented with a double tuft of lilac flowers falling over the face like feathers.

5. A white crape train dress, with long sleeves, white satin ribband twisted round the figure from the bottom to the top; the body is of white satin, the bosom composed of folded white crape; a wreath of satin, pearls, or foil worn on the head; white kid shoes with foil rosettes. This was lately the dress of a bride. 6. A pale green crape train dress, worn over white satin, with white crape long sleeves, and ornamented round the bottom with an applique of white satin in the device of crescents or flowers; the hair decorated with emeralds; white kid gloves and shoes,

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

AND REFLECTIONS ON FASHION AND DRESS. THE sciences of Poetry and Dress have been compared, and it has been very pleasingly observed, that the rules of the one, with very little variation, may serve for the other. As in a poem all the several parts of it must have a harmony with the whole, so to keep up the propriety of dress the several articles which comprise it should correspond. Dress, the natural consequence of the refinement of the times, is now become a subject of general importance, it is grown of universal use in the conduct of life; civilities and respect are only paid to appearance,-it is a varnish that gives a lustre to every action.

We have a kind of sketch of dress among us which, as the invention was foreign, is called a Dishabille; every thing is thrown on with a loose are careless air, yet a genius discovers itself even through this negligence of dress, just as you may see the masterly hand of a painter in three or four swift strokes of the pencil.

In order to dress with propriety it is first necessary to have a strict regard to time and place; as, for instance, what can be more ridiculous than the velvet gown in summer? The muff and fur are preposterous in June, which are charmingly supplied by the Turkish handkerchief and fan. Every thing must be suitable to the season, and there can be no propriety in dress without a strict regard to

time.

You must have no less respect to place. What gives a lady a more easy air than the wrapping-gown in the morning at the teatable. A good carriage is what gives spirit to dress; nothing appears graceful without it. The beads, the arms, the legs, must all conspire to give a genteel easy air; and to this end the science of dancing cannot be too carefully, or too early incnleated; this will give the feet an easy gait, and the arms a graceful motion. Every different style of face requires a different mode of dress; what would agree with a sprightly animated air, would perhaps ill accord with a tender interesting countenance. But to lay down rules for every species of beauty would be an endless, nay an useless task. A lady of taste will give a genteel air, to her whole dress by a well-fancied bouquet, or a well-selected colour. It ought to be remembered that there is a beauty peculiar to every stage of life; the head-dress must give the mother a more sedate mien than the virgin, and as much propriety should be observed in the dress of the old as in the young.

With respect to our usual communications on the most prevailing fashion of the day, w have to observe that the late month, owing to the coldness of the weather and season of Lent, has not been productive of great variety.

Rather a novel article has appeared for morning dresses; a corded muslin, the cord about the size of a fine twine; no alteration has taken place in the formation of these dresser, they are still worn high in the neck, with col lars and long sleeves, edged with lace, of a walking length. Caps are in high estimation, ornamented with blossoms and flowers.

Pelisses and mantles are still equally worn; we have observed several elegant women in short light blue pelisses, made to sit tight to the shape with full collars, buttoned from the throat to the feet with gilt drop buttons; on their heads they wore white satin caps with full turban fronts, ornament with two white ostrich feathers. We are informed that spensers in corded celestial blue, pale pink, and primrose coloured sarsnet, will be very prevailing. Mantles have not varied in their form though somewhat changed in their texture; sarsuet mantles in light green shot with yellow, violet, trimmed with primrose, appear to have been selected by women of fashion. White satin head-dresses are a great relief to the dress, and display more taste than a cap exactly similar with the pelisse. White chip hats, with rather high flat crowns, and broad flat rim, bound with ribband, and tied down with the same, is a most facinating artiele for the promenade. There is a close bonnet called the Malmaison, which, with the Shepherd's hat just described, we cannot too much recommend.

Coloured robes are now entirely laid aside, on the public walks white only is to be seen; no gaudy colour now offends the eye, the utmost neatness and simplicity prevail.

For dinner and afternoon dresses sarsnets are much worn, the waists a moderate length, the trains about a quarter and half a yard; long sleeves are by no means laid aside; the lavender blossom is a very favourite colour in this style of attire.

For evening, or full dress, nothing has ap peared to rival the Imperial nets, figured gauzes, sarsnets, satins, India muslins,, embroidered round the bottom, the flowers interspersed with lace; all of which are held in equal estimation. All dresses are made in the French style, just above the rise of the bosom before, and the backs not quite so high as in our last. Gold bands, bandeaus of coloured stones, foil wreaths, small caps, lace handker chiefs, and artificial flowers.

The hair is worn in full curls on one side

According to a calculation of M. Coquebert || Monthert, the French empire at present contains the following population :-Inhabitants who speak the French language, 28,126,000; the German, 2,705,000, the Flemish, 2,277,000; | the Breton, 967,000; the Biscayan, 108,000; forming a total of 38,262,000.

The celebrated Russian traveller, M. Hendenstrom, has paid a second visit to the countries discovered to the north of Siberia, which are denominated in the best maps the country of Listickof, or Sannikof. He has found them to be only an island; but farther to the north this traveller discovered a country watered by considerable streams, which he thought form ed part of the continent. He examined coasts to the extent of 170 wersts, and found them covered with great trees, petrified and lying in heaps one upon another. The hills are formed of scarcely any thing but slates, petrified wood, and coal. This country he has named New Siberia. In his researches there M. Hendenstrom has found the claws of a gigantic bird, which seems to have belonged to a species at present unknown. These claws are described as being each a yard in length; the Yakuts have assured him that in their hunting excursions they have frequently met with skeletons and even feathers of this bird. This discovery cannot fail of proving interesting to naturalists, since it strengthens the probability that toge ther with the mammoths, mastodontes, and other quadrupeds now extinct, there existed both in the animal and vegetable kingdom species of corresponding dimensions, and in all probability a world quite different from the present.

In the month of October last a fresh search was made for antiquities in the ruins of the ancient Pompeji, by order of their Neapolitan Majesties. On this occasion the Chevalier Arditi, superintendant of the Royal Museum, presented several pieces of ancient pitch, a vessel full of wheat, a piece of coral, several beautiful paintings, and a lamp of baked earth in the form of a leaf, with a Latin inscription. This lamp was covered with a very fine varnish or vitrification, which gave it a silvery or pearly appearance. It seems therefore that those authors are mistaken, who assert that this vitrification was not invented till the fifteenth century by a Florentine sculptor. Their Majesties having expressed a desire to have some of the ruins dug up in their presence, the workmen had the good fortune to find several pieces of money of various denominatious; a number of bronzes, among which was a very fine vase and an urn for wine; some articles formed of bones; a great quantity of glasses of various shapes and sizes, and in particular several vases, improperly called Etruscan, with Latin inscriptions. They also discovered various works in marble, some comic masks, a few small but elegant altars adorned with basso-relievos, and weights marked on the upper side with cyphers. Hitherto only a single subterraneous habitation, erroneously denominated a cautino, but which ought rather to have been named crypte portico, had|| been found at Pompeji; in the recent exca

vations another, consisting of several stories, was discovered. It is remarkable for having in one corner a pipe, or tube, of stucco, intended for the conveyance of smoke. This discovery seems to set at rest a question loug agitated by the learned, whether the ancients were acquainted with the use of vents, or chimneys, for carrying off smoke. In the same apartments were found several pieces of marble and alabaster, valuable on account of the bassorelievos and inscriptions with which they are adorned. Their Majesties then proceeded to a triclinium, or dining apartment, recently discovered. The walls are decorated with paintings in the best taste, representing fishes, birds, and game of all kinds. Here are three couches of masonry, in perfect preservation, upon which the ancients reclined during their meals, and near them is still to be seen a marble foot, which must have served to sup. port the table.

A society for the education of the blind has lately been established at Zurich, in Switzerland. The present number of pupils is fifty y and what is singular, the head master, M. Funke, is blind. He is described as an excellent teacher and an ingenious mechanic.

The calamities experienced at different times in Switzerland from the sudden rolling down of prodigious masses of rock and other component parts of mountains in the Grisons, have suggested to the government the propriety of employing M. Escher, a geologist of Zurich, to survey that country. He has accordingly published the result of his enquiries; from which it appears that the valley of Nolla, near the village of Thusis, and the valley of Plesner, near Coire, are threatened with the visitation of avalanches, unless measures of precaution be speedily adopted.

A humorous French writer, in describing the peculiarities of the English, tells a story of a man who was going down the Bird-cage Walk, in St. James's Park, to drown himself in the canal, but was stopped in his passage. by the sentinel, who refused to let him go on, though much intreated to do it. The other, enraged at his disappointment, flew into a passion, and exclaimed, that English liberty was lost for ever?

An itinerant Jew having purchased a house with a piece of ground in the suburbs of Warsaw, while lately engaged in removing some rubbish, discovered at the depth of three feet a trunk covered with plates of iron, and which, on bursting open, was found to contain gold and silver coins to the amount of 14,000l. sterling. From particular circumstances it is supposed that the treasure was concealed during the siege of Warsaw by the Russians in 1796.

A man and his wife were recently executed at Augsburg for a murder, the discovery of which, after a long lapse of time, strongly manifests the impossibility of eluding the allseeing eye of Providence. The criminal, whose name was Wincze, was originally of Nurenburg, but removed to Augsburg in 1788, where he followed the law. In this city he became intimate in the family of M. Gleg, to whose