July 29. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



«1 



In conclusion allow me, as an American, to 

 allude to the Query of Mk. Teivett Allcock 

 {Vol. ix., p. HI.), whether Andre was altogether 

 blameless in the " qiiestionable affair " for which 

 he suffered. I do not see how his conduct can be 

 defended. The spy who endeavours to discover 

 the force and disposition of an enemy's troops, 

 executes a dangerous commission, but it is an 

 honourable one. The intelligence which he brings 

 is of the greatest consequence, and though by the 

 code of war his life is forfeit if he is detected, in a 

 moral point of view he has done no wrong. But 

 Andre was engaged in other offices than those of the 

 spy. He knew that he was negotiating the terms 

 of a treason, and tempting a weak officer to bar- 

 gain away the cause of his country for gold and 

 military rank. He did not enter the American 

 •camp with the furtive design of an honest spy, but 

 he went as a tempter, to whisper proposals of re- 

 ward to the weak ear of a once respected man, 

 hoping by the splendour of his offers to prostrate 

 his reeling virtue. It was not an honourable 

 office which Andre undertook. We do not know 

 how far he might have been forced into the po- 

 sition by superior command, but at all events it 

 was a false position, which brought upon him not 

 merely the fall of the spy, but of the tempter. 

 Andre seems in other affairs to have been a 

 spirited, accomplished, and kind man, as the letters 

 we have given above show. His transaction with 

 Arnold was a great and a melancholy mistake. 



Thompsoit Wbstcott. 



Philadelphia, U. S. A. 



I have read somewhere (but have mislaid the 

 reference) that Washington and some of the 

 American officers were inclined to have spared 

 Major Andre, but that Lafayette and other French 

 officers urged his execution with a vehemence and 

 perseverance that overpowered the more merciful 

 part of the judges. I am no admirer of the career 

 of the " Grandison-Cromwell," but the cruelty 

 and vindictiveness of the part here assigned him 

 do not find, as far as I can remember, any parallel 

 in his subsequent long and active life. Can some 

 of your American correspondents inform me 

 whether there is any foundation for the above 

 statement ? 



^ Mb. Sparks, in his remarks on this case, vin- 

 dicates Washington from the charge of excessive 

 severity, by what ha calls a paralUl instance of 

 the execution of a young American officer, appre- 

 hended in the British camp. The cases are en- 

 tirely different; for it is evident by Mr. Sparks' 

 own account, that the American officer was a spy 

 in the fullest sense of the word, which nobody 

 accused Andre of being, although the rigid inter- 

 pretation of the laws of war perhaps authorised 

 his being treated as such. J. S. Warden. 



NOTES ON MANNERS, COSTUME, ETC. 



(^Continued from p. 23.) 



Coats, — Full dress coats have no capes nor cuffs, 

 morning or riding coats had ; whence are derived the 

 ordinary coat now worn all through Europe called 

 frocks, and all uniforms. The full dress was made 

 to fit, but the riding dress was loose, and long in 

 the collar and arms to protect the neck and wrists. 

 Wiien the weather was fine, or that the wearer 

 came into a house, he doubled down his cape, and 

 doubled up his cuffs ; and as in those days the 

 coats were lined with different coloured stuffs, the 

 colour of the lining became the colour of the cape 

 and cuffs. Uniforms had the same origin, the 

 facings, as they are called, being only the old 

 linings. This is still preserved in the French 

 word revers, which is more correct than our word 

 facing ; though that also, if well considered, has 

 the same meaning : for it was the custom to face 

 the breasts of coats with a slip of lining, which, 

 when buckled back, became what is now called a 

 facing, as in hats and boots, in which a corre- 

 sponding alteration has taken place.) The frocks 

 being cut down straight to cover the thighs (as 

 grooms' frocks still are), were inconvenient to 

 walk in ; the opposite corners of each skirt were 

 therefore furnished with a hook and eye, by which 

 the skirt was fastened back, and hence the form 

 of the flaps of military coats, of a different colour 

 from the coats, with an ornament in the place of 

 the hook and eye. When I was a child (1790), I 

 had a kind of military uniform which was made in 

 this fashion, and I have seen uniforms of the Irish 

 Volunteers in this style. This is the reason why 

 a standing collar is essential to a full-dress coat; 

 and that the Windsor uniform, rich, handsome, and 

 laced as it was, and worn with a sword, cocked 

 hat, and buckles, was not full dress, because it 

 was a frock ; because the cape and collars were 

 red, while the coat was blue ; and because the cape 

 was a double one. Of this Windsor uniform there 

 were three classes in the last thirty years of 

 George III. : the common blue frock with red 

 cape and cuffs, worn In the morning ; the laced blue 

 frock, with gold-laced button-holes on the breasts, 

 pocket-flaps, capes, and cuffs; with this coat, white 

 breeches, and a cocked hat and sword, were worn. 

 It was the dress of those who attendeii the king 

 when not actually at court. The third was a blue 

 full-dress coat with standing collar, embroidered, 

 with red silk breeches : this was a complete court 

 dress, but worn only by cabinet ministers and the 

 great officers of the crown. The Princes of the 

 Blood, and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, have 

 a kind of frock uniform; blue for the former, &c.; 

 the latter the colour he may choose, lined with 

 silk, and with a button bearing the initial and 

 coronet of the Prince or Lord Lieutenant ; but 

 not otherwise differing from the usual frock coat. 



