It
is often a very well-dressed body; and in this House of Commons, in
particular, there is a very large proportion of well-tailored and
well-groomed young men--especially, of course, on the Tory side. The
consequence is, that you are able to trace the transformations of
fashion, the processions of the seasons, the variety of appropriate
garbs which social and other engagements impose, as accurately in the
House of Commons as in Rotten Row.
[Sidenote: The old order.]
The ordinary tendency of the Parliamentary man is towards the sombre
black, and the solemnity of the long-tailed frock-coat. There have been
times when if a member of Parliament did venture to enter the House of
Commons in a coat prematurely ending in the short tails of the morning
coat, or in the tail-less sack-coat, he would have been called up to the
Speaker's chair and as severely reprimanded as though he had committed
the most atrocious offence--in those far-off days--of wearing a pot-hat.
But in these democratic times one can do anything; and low-crowned hats,
sack-coats, homespun Irish tweeds, affright and shock the old
aristocratic Parliamentary eye. When summer approaches, the whole aspect
of the House changes.
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