as been to dispense with official
costumes. In the United States the judges of the Supreme Court alone
wear robes; the president of the Republic wears on all occasions the
dress of an ordinary citizen, unrelieved by order or decoration, and
thus symbolizes his pride of place as _primus inter pares_; an American
ambassador appears on state occasions among his colleagues, gorgeous in
bullion-covered coats, in the ordinary black "evening dress" of a modern
gentleman. The principle, which tends to assert itself also in the
autonomous "British dominions beyond the seas," is not the result of
that native dislike of "dressing up" which characterizes many Englishmen
of the upper and middle classes; for modern democracy shares to the full
the taste of past ages for official or quasi-official finery, as is
proved by the costumes and insignia of the multitudinous popular orders,
Knights Templars, Foresters, Oddfellows and the like. It is rather
cherished as the outward and visible sign of that doctrine of the
equality of all men which remains the most generally gratifying of the
gifts of French 18th-century philosophy to the world. In Great Britain,
where equality has ever been less valued than liberty, official costumes
have tended to increase rather than to fall into disuse; mayors of new
boroughs, for instance, are not considered properly equipped until they
have their gown and chain of office. In France, on the other hand, the
taste of the people for pomp and display, and, it may be added, their
innate artistic sense, have combined with their passion for equality to
produce a somewhat anomalous situation as regards official costume.
Lawyers have their robes, judges their scarlet gowns, diplomatists their
gold-laced uniforms; but the state costume of the president of the
Republic is "evening dress," relieved only by the red riband and star of
the Legion of Honour. In the Latin states of South America, which tend
to be disguised despotisms rather than democracies, the actual rather
than the theoretical state of things is symbolized by the gorgeous
official uniforms which are among the rewards of those who help the
dictator for the time being to power. See also ROBES; for military
costume see UNIFORMS; for ecclesiastical costume see VESTMENTS and
subsidiary articles. (W. A. P.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Apart from the enormous number of books especially
devoted to costume, innumerable illustrated works exist which are, in
various