GENEVA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 37 



details were too intimate or too small for these meticulous pastors. 

 They revelled in the regulation of funerals and mourning ; they 

 forbade the use of monuments or inscribed tombstones ; they re- 

 buked a husband for wearing too long a scarf on his wife's death, 

 a mother for putting on black for her infant. Ladies might not 

 carry their watches pinned on their breasts. Gowns without 

 waistbands were forbidden, ' since a mother of a family ought 

 not to think of her dress,' nor might she go to church in shoes, 

 which is ' too unbecoming.' The materials of the ladies' gowns 

 must not be of extravagant richness, nor must they wear lace, 

 except on their inner garments ! The Chamber further made 

 rules as to how many guests you might entertain, and how many 

 courses you might offer them. Liveries were not allowed. Car- 

 riages might only be used for long country drives. Even a bride 

 was expected to walk to church, nor might she receive, or give, 

 wedding presents. Babies' christening robes must be simple. 

 Finally, some wiseacre (or wit ?) proposed that the Chamber 

 ' should establish a standard costume both for men and women, 

 which should never be altered ' ! Is it to be wondered at if, under 

 such provocation, there were many fair recalcitrants ? We are 

 told of one petulant demoiselle who vented * incoherent words ' 

 against the august tribunal. She was promptly fined fifty florins 

 and costs, ' to be obtained by summary process.' It is pleasing 

 to learn that a bold citizen was found with the good sense to retort 

 by proposing that ' the Chamber of Reform be abolished, as use- 

 less.' His fate has not been recorded. 



Happily, there is reason to believe that at the worst of times the 

 critic of the Chamber I have just cited came near to expressing a 

 fact, and it is clear that after the middle of the eighteenth century 

 this petty tyranny had been greatly relaxed at any rate for the 

 upper classes. By a singular inconsistency, even in the period 

 of the strictest control, the standard of luxury permissible was 

 graduated according to social rank. The wives of the principal 

 officers of State were allowed special privileges in the way of 

 decorating their persons, doubtless a pleasing substitute for the 

 share in their husbands' civil designations accorded ladies in coun- 

 tries east of the Rhine up to the present day. A print of 1789, 

 commemorating a street procession held on one of the many recon- 

 ciliations between the contending parties in the State, displays 



