THE FOUR GEORGES AND THEIR TIMES, AS ILLUSTRATED BY CONTEMPORARY PICTURES.

BY JOHN NEWTON, M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT.

A FERTILE subject for discussion at all times has beenwhether mankind are really progressing or not. Some assert that we are going from bad to worse, and sigh after what they are pleased to call "the good old times." Others insist that we are ever progressing. Whilst the cynics assert that our civilizations ebb and flow, like the tides of the sea, any certain progress being doubtful. With such thinkers we may place the wisest man of his day-Solomon, who, grasping all the knowledge of his time, its failures and shortcomings, having tasted all its pleasures and delights, cried out:-"Vanity of vanities! all is vanity. The thing that hath been is the thing that shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. The crooked cannot be made straight, and the things that are wanting cannot be numbered." Some of the apostles appear to have taken this despairing view of things. Evil men and seducers are to wax worse and worse until the terrible day of the Lord shall flash suddenly upon the world. Then shall this earth, and the works that are therein be burned up, and usher in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein shall dwell nothing but righteousness. To come to later times, Milton and other illustrious men have followed in the same strain. But in this nine

teenth century a very different idea has sprung up: that God has been working out his purposes for mankind, slowly, slowly, through untold ages, and that we and our forefathers have been unconsciously evolving the divine drama of humanity. Or as Tennyson puts it:

For I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose

runs

And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of

the suns.

That this is the true solution of the riddle of humanity may, I think, be abundantly proved from the social history of our own country. The subject is so vast that all I can do to-night is by the help of a number of contemporary pictures to bring some of that social life in the past before you, and to make each the text for brief comment.

We will begin with the ladies. What was the social condition of women during the reigns of the four Georges? It was bad and degrading enough. Their education was of the most limited kind. They had nothing to stimulate and develop their minds, and yet they were abused for lack of brains. Many passages from the writings of Pope might be quoted to this effect. Writing to Lord Boling

broke, he says:

Nothing so true as what you once let fall,

Most women have no characters at all,

Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,

And best distinguish'd as dark, brown, or fair.

For those above the working classes it was just a few years of dull, school life, and then-how to get a husband was all they had left to think of. Every other avenue for

* The address was illustrated by 80 lantern slides, taken from original pictures in the collection of the writer.

reasonable ambition was closed to them, and they were condemned to

A sort of cagebird life, born in a cage

Accounting that, to leap from perch to perch

Was act and joy enough for any bird.

And marriage rather increased the thraldom. The woman was held to have merged her individuality in that of her husband. She had no rights, even to the wages she might earn. Nor could she own property, it must be held for her by trustees. And so matters remained throughout the reigns of the four Georges, 1714-1830, in spite of the eloquent appeals of Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792, and of Mrs. Norton. But under the mild sway of our illustrious Queen a brighter day has dawned. Recent acts of Parliament have swept away all the legal disabilities of women; and they now find a thousand new opportunities for work in various fields of labour. Literature and science are open to them. No one sneers at "the blue stocking." They write our novels and lighter literature. At the recent visit of the British Association to Liverpool, ladies read papers and often formed the majority of the audience. Ladies colleges have been opened in London, and at all the ancient seats of learning, and degrees can now be obtained by women at most of them. They sit and vote on School Boards, Boards of Guardians, and County Councils, and the change has been every way a blessing. Men no longer grudge to the women their newly gained liberty, for they perceive that every advance of the woman means a further advance to the man.

And now I introduce you to the first of my picturesIt is entitled "Thoughts on Matrimony," and is dated 1786. A lovely girl, dressed in the picturesque costume of the time, is pondering over an open letter, offering her

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marriage, and underneath is this motto from a play :-Take thus much of my counsel. Marry not in haste, for she that takes the best of husbands, puts but on a golden fetter." How true this was at the time, and for many years after, there is, unfortunately, abundant proof. The Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV, with his brother, the Duke of York, the Commander in chief, were notorious for the profligacy of their lives, for their brutal behaviour to the Princesses, their wives, and for their unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. And their bad example was not lost upon others. Moore, the poet, so late as 1820, records that

Lord

*

at women presuming to rail, Calls a wife-a tin canister tied to one's tail.

And this, too, in the presence of his lady. Thank God! we cannot conceive such an outrage being publicly committed in our highest circles at the present day.

That the women were almost as charming and attractive as those who now form the ministering angels of our homes seems certain from the contemporary pictures. Here is one, "A lady reading, 1780," very graceful, showing the large hat needed at that date to cover the puffed-out hair. Here are others, 1790 and 1794. At an earlier period, from the reign of Charles II to that of George I, the hair was worn in ringlets as we see in this lovely portrait of the Countess of Rochester. This very attractive style came up again a century later, say from 1815 to 1840, as some of us can remember, and as may be seen in the early portraits of the Queen. With the accession of George III a far less commendable fashion arose. From about 1765-1790 the hair was worn a prodigious height, thanks to much false hair and padding. It was also well greased and powdered, and the vast structure