ropemakers, wherein it was represented, "that the demand for
cords, and the price of them, were much risen since this fashion came
up." At this, all the company who were present lifted up their eyes into
the vault; and I must confess, we did discover many traces of cordage,
which were interwoven in the stiffening of the drapery.

A third argument was founded upon a petition of the Greenland trade,
which likewise represented the great consumption of whalebone which
would be occasioned by the present fashion, and the benefit which would
thereby accrue to that branch of the British trade.

To conclude, they gently touched upon the weight and unwieldiness of the
garment, which they insinuated might be of great use.

These arguments would have wrought very much upon me, as I then told
the company in a long and elaborate discourse, had I not considered
the great and additional expense which such fashions would bring upon
fathers and husbands; and, therefore, by no means to be thought of till
some years after a peace. I further urged, that it would be a prejudice
to the ladies themselves, who could never expect to have any money in
the pocket if they laid out so much on the petticoat.

At the same time, in answer to the several petitions produced on
that side, I showed one subscribed by the women of several persons of
quality, humbly setting forth, "that, since the introduction of this
mode, their respective ladies had, instead of bestowing on them their
cast gowns, cut them into shreds, and mixed them with the cordage and
buckram, to complete the stiffening of their under petticoats."
For which, and sundry other reasons, I pronounced the petticoat a
forfeiture; but to show that I did not make that judgment for the sake
of filthy lucre, I ordered it to be folded up, and sent it as a present
to a widow-gentlewoman who has five daughters, desiring she would make
each of them a petticoat out of it, and send me back the remainder,
which I design to cut into stomachers, caps, facings of my
waistcoat-sleeves, and other garnitures suitable to my age and quality.

I would not be understood that, while I discard this monstrous
invention, I am an enemy to the proper ornaments of the fair sex. On the
contrary, as the hand of nature has poured on them such a profusion
of charms and graces, and sent them into the world more amiable and
finished than the rest of her works; so I would have them bestow upon
themselves all the additional b