y cotton goods, and jackets
or coats of the same. Fustian has become the proverbial costume of the
working-men, who are called "fustian jackets," and call themselves so in
contrast to the gentlemen who wear broadcloth, which latter words are
used as characteristic for the middle-class. When Feargus O'Connor, the
Chartist leader, came to Manchester during the insurrection of 1842, he
appeared, amidst the deafening applause of the working-men, in a fustian
suit of clothing. Hats are the universal head-covering in England, even
for working-men, hats of the most diverse forms, round, high,
broad-brimmed, narrow-brimmed, or without brims--only the younger men in
factory towns wearing caps. Any one who does not own a hat folds himself
a low, square paper cap.

The whole clothing of the working-class, even assuming it to be in good
condition, is little adapted to the climate. The damp air of England,
with its sudden changes of temperature, more calculated than any other to
give rise to colds, obliges almost the whole middle-class to wear flannel
next the skin, about the body, and flannel scarfs and shirts are in
almost universal use. Not only is the working-class deprived of this
precaution, it is scarcely ever in a position to use a thread of woollen
clothing; and the heavy cotton goods, though thicker, stiffer, and
heavier than woollen clothes, afford much less protection against cold
and wet, remain damp much longer because of their thickness and the
nature of the stuff, and have nothing of the compact density of fulled
woollen cloths. And, if a working-man once buys himself a woollen coat
for Sunday, he must get it from one of the cheap shops where he finds
bad, so-called "Devil's-dust" cloth, manufactured for sale and not for
use, and liable to tear or grow threadbare in a fortnight, or he must buy
of an old clothes'-dealer a half-worn coat which has seen its best days,
and lasts but a few weeks. Moreover, the working-man's clothing is, in
most cases, in bad condition, and there is the oft-recurring necessity
for placing the best pieces in the pawnbroker's shop. But among very
large numbers, especially among the Irish, the prevailing clothing
consists of perfect rags often beyond all mending, or so patched that the
original colour can no longer be detected. Yet the English and Anglo-
Irish go on patching, and have carried this art to a remarkable pitch,
putting wool or bagging on fustian, or the reverse--it's all