y speaking--and, indeed, from motives of comfort--we have no
hesitation in saying, turn down your collars; they never were meant to
be turned up. But it is now become so much of a French and English
affair, that we shall be suspected of want of patriotism if we do not
say, keep up your collars, and uphold the national dignity! As for the
no-collar view of the subject, much may be said for and against it: it
depends a good deal on your complexion, reader, and also on the colour
of your cravat. If you have got on your cambric and your lace, you need
no further contrast for your physiognomical tint; but if you are wearing
a black kerchief, and you are of a bilious brown and yellow hue, pray
let us see half an inch, at least, of white beneath the lower jawbone.
This point of contrast is the real reason why the collar should, as a
matter of taste, be allowed to lie down on the cravat. It produces
greater effect--it looks cleaner--it is certainly more comfortable. If
the majority of freeborn Englishmen shall ever so far surmount their
prejudices as to take a hint from France, (for 'tis an invention of _la
jeune France_,) we will walk over from our side of the house, and, in
face of the nation and our constituents, will join them.

Collars are connected with wristbands just as the two ends of the
electric telegraph are by the communicating wires, and the satisfactory
intelligence disclosed by the one, that the wearer is a good friend to
his laundress, is, or should be, simultaneously repeated by the other.
Believe us, reader, there is no more distinctive mark of a correct man
than a snowy-white wristband, _always_ to be visible. Here again we must
establish another aesthetical rule of proportion, viz. collars are to
wristbands as laced cravats are to ruffles; and therefore, if you decide
upon taking our advice and indulging in Brussels lace while you sip your
claret, you must also buy lace enough to adorn your wrists, and you will
not repent of the expense or the effect. It is, in truth, a pretty and a
graceful fashion, which, for evening dress, should entirely be
re-introduced, and we anticipate that the ladies would be unanimous in
their approbation.

A few more words on odds and ends of dress, and we have done with civil
costume. Always keep yourself well supplied with gloves; wear them
neither of a blue, nor yet of a green, nor even of a red colour: any
other kind of tint you may, under various circumstances, indulge in.