THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER'S SUMPTUARY LAW.
IT is evidently not safe for Bishops to read children's books. Compared with a good deal else that they have to get through—Archidiaconal reports, the balance-sheets of diocesan societies, complaints from aggrieved parishioners, and their own visitation charges—a child's story is too fascinating for them. They cannot shake-off the recollection of it ; and it sometimes obtrudes itself where it would be much better away. No reader of Hans Andersen will need to be told on what kind of literature the Bishop of Rochester has lately been employed. His address to his Clergy on Confirmation breathes the true spirit of " The Little Red Shoes." The Bishop has been fascinated, as most of us have in our time, by the sad history of the little girl who used to go barefoot because she was poor, was adopted by an old lady and taken to be confirmed, and was allowed, because the old lady could not see well, to buy a pair of red shoes for the occasion. When the confirmation was over, we read : " The old lady was told by every one that the shoes were red ; and she said it was very shocking, and not at all proper." This is precisely what has happened to the Bishop of Rochester. Some one has told him—it can hardly be that he has found it out for himself—that some of the girls who come to be confirmed wear white-satin shoes ; and he has allowed his recollection of what the old lady said when she was told by every one that
Karen's shoes were red, to supply him with a formula. It is "very shocking, and not at all proper." White-satin shoes, in the higher class, like mock-pearls in the humbler, are "gently but firmly to be eschewed." It is a pity that the Bishop did not offer some specific suggestions as to the mode in which this gentle but firm eschewal is to be exerted. The Clergy will naturally wish to please their Bishop so far as they can, and we feel sure that they would have been grateful for some hints upon the proper way of setting to work. At what point of the preparation which the candidates undergo can the question how they mean to be shod, be best raised ? It will not do to wait until the confirmationday has come. The morning would all be too short to allow the Clergy to go round to the houses of the female candidates with a request to be shown the shoes they were about to, or had just, put on. Yet if they merely say, when the confirmation-class first meets, " I am desired by the Bishop to inform you that you are not to wear white-satin shoes," what assurance will they have that the warning will be remembered when the day comes Very little, we fear. When the confirmation dress is ordered, and the question—What kind of shoes will best go with it ? comes to be considered, the fiat of the young person in the shoemaker's shop, " Ch! white, Madame, certainly," will have a far greater chance of being attended to than any number of Episcopal directions. Yet, if the Clergy were to give notice that at the last meeting of the confirmation-class every girl must bring with her the shoes she proposes to wear at the ceremony, it would be an exceedingly unpopular step. The spectacle of the study . or school-room table piled with shoes of all shapes, sizes, and materials might be edifying, but it would not be grateful. And even if, in obedience to the mandate of duty, the Clergy were to put aside the thought of popularity and organise the exhibition, the real offenders would probably escape. Those who were not going to wear white-satin shoes would appear each with a pair of stout walking-boots, or black-felt slippers, or whatever else was supposed to be most in conformity with the Episcopal decree, carried modestly under her arm ; but the hardened worldlings who meant to wear white-satin shoes in spite cf priest or bishop would come empty-handed. The shoes, they might plead, were not yet bought, or had not yet come home. No doubt, the clergyman might say that no girl, about whose shoes any torturing doubt yet lingered, should have a confirmation-ticket. But it would be a strong step, and we doubt whether the Clergy generally would be prepared to take it. So far as we see, therefore, if whitesatin shoes are gently, but firmly, to be eschewed, it will be left to the. Bishop of Rochester himself to carry out his sentence.
It is only fair to the Bishop to say that he does not shut his eyes to the stern necessity that may be laid upon him. "Nothing," he says, " would distress me more than to have to send a candidate back for showy or tawdry apparel. But, for example's sake, it may be necessary for me to do it." It is quite wrong, we frankly admit, to wish that the Bishop may find it necessary. But we are so filled with curiosity to see holy he would carry out his threat, that we do wish it, wrong as it may be. As regards tawdry apparel, the Bishop's course would be easy enough. The form of this offence that be specially singles-out for censure " in the humbler class " is mock-pearls ; and as pearls, whether mock or real, are usually worn round the neck, they are of the kind of sins that go before to judgment. The verger or the pew-opener might have orders to "gently, but firmly," give each wearer of mockpearls the choice between taking them off and being herself taken out of church. But with shoes, the case is different. Were Confirmation administered to children, as in the Roman Church, they would be as visible as mock-pearls. But the Anglican Episcopate prefers to postpone Confirmation to the age of fifteen•; and we feel sure that the Bishop of Rochester would not wish that at that age the candidates should all appear in short petticoats. Then, how is he to satisfy himself that his orders have been obeyed ? The only plan we can suggest is that, the candidates being arranged in rows, the chaplain—the examining chaplain, we presume—should plant himself .successively before each, " gently, but firmly " take hold of her foot, and, with the encouraging " hold up " addressed to horses who are suspected of having a stone in their shoe, bring it sufficiently forward to convince the Bishop that the " showy finery " which excites his indignation has been left at home. It will be well that whoever conducts the operation should make sure before beginning that the candidates have some support at their back. It would hardly be edifying to see a whole line of white-robed maidens going down like ninepins under the awkward touch of a young, and possibly nervous, chaplain. We have drawn this picture in some detail, because it may, perhaps, induce the Bishop to consider whether this is not a reform which had better be let alone. Resolute as he may think himself, he will never carry out his Sumptuary Law without respect of persons. He will hardly, for example, turn back the daughter of the Lord-Lieutenant because she comes in white-satin shoes. Moreover, if a white dress is not thought too showy, why should white shoes be singled out for censure ? Another Bishop might with equal reason object to candidates coming in parti-coloured apparel, and refuse to see anything specially modest in the magpie combination of a white dress and black shoes. And if on reflection the Bishop consents to be a little blind to " showy apparel " in one dress, he will, we are sure, see the wisdom of not being extreme to condemn "tawdry apparel" in another. The heartburnings that will be caused by a prohibition of those mock-pearls, which the wearer probably thinks indispensable to bring her dress up to the level proper to the occasion, will be more hurtful to the character than any self-satisfaction which may accompany the wearing of them. By all means let the Clergy encourage quiet dress at Confirmation by precept, and urge their rich parishioners to encourage it by example. That will be a reasonable work reasonably done. But if this plan does not succeed, it will be wise, for Bishops at all events, to accept the failure without losing their self-possession. For them, as for the law, there are things too small to care about.
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