209.

[E] A copy of this very rare work was destroyed with the valuable
library in the burning of the Parliament House in Montreal, 26th April,
1849.

[F] Charlevoix: Hist. Nouv. France. Liste des Auteurs.

THE HAT REFORM AGITATION.

New hats are inevitable. Genin, who appears to be as clever in writing
as in making hats, has avowed himself a conservative, and in a long
argument has vindicated the style of which he is so eminent a
manufacturer. But the "people" are for reform, and we must all bend to
the will of the people; land reform, bank reform, all kinds of reform,
now are forgotten in the cry for a reform in hats; this has rallied
around it all ranks, classes and orders: they say, "Take off your
funnels!"

It has been responded to with enthusiasm. From the lord of one hundred
thousand acres to the hard-worker for his daily bread--from the
ultra-conservative to the ultra-destructive--from the High-Churchman to
the No-Churchman--from the Puseyite to the Presbyterian--from the
gentleman down to the veriest "gent," this new question of Reform has
drawn unanimous adhesion. In fact, the attempted revolution in our head
gear, more fortunate than the other revolutions talked about of late
years, promises to be successful.

Says the London _News_, "The ladies are as unanimous as the gentlemen on
the subject, and give the potent assistance of their voices to the
movement, and wonder how it is that men, who have so keen a sense of the
beautiful, should have been so long blinded to the ugliness imposed upon
their lordly foreheads by the hat-makers. A few of the most conservative
of these hat-makers are the only persons who venture a word in defence
of the ancient barbarism which it is the object of the revolutionists to
remove. Now and then a hatter of all novelties, whether of hats or of
ideas, will venture to come to the aid of the hat-makers, and to ask if
any one can suggest a better head 'accoutrement' than the old familiar
hat which it is attempted to scout out of society with such hasty
ignominy. But, if hatters and the hat conservatives are closely pressed
to tell us what recommendation the article has, they are obliged to give
up the argument in despair--to intrench themselves in the old fortress
of such reasoners, and to defend what is, merely because it is. They
would stand on the old ways, were they knee-deep in slush; and they
would wear the old hat, were it not only of the shape, but of the
mate