196 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



typgs and by comparing different stages of the same society. 

 In China and Japan, where the political organization 

 evolved in ancient times by war, acquired a rigidity which 

 has kept it unchanged till modern times, we see great per 

 sistence of these class-badges and costumes; and among 

 European nations, those which have retained types pre 

 dominantly militant, are in greater degrees characterized 

 by the prevalence of special dresses and decorations than 

 those which have become relatively industrial in their types. 

 In Russia, &quot; a dress which could not denote the rank of 

 the man, and a man whose only worth should arise from his 

 personal merit, would be considered as anomalies.&quot; De 

 scribing a Russian dinner-party, Dr. Moritz Wagner says 

 &quot; I found that on the breasts of thirty-five military guests, 

 there glittered more than two hundred stars and crosses; 

 many of the coats of generals had more orders than but 

 tons.&quot; And this trait which by contrast strikes a German in 

 Russia, similarly by contrast strikes an Englishman in Ger 

 many. Capt. Spencer remarks &quot; I do not believe that any 

 people in Europe are more partial to titles and orders than 

 the Germans, and more especially the Austrians.&quot; And 

 then after recalling the differences between the street-scenes 

 on the Continent and in England, caused by the relative in- 

 frequency here of official costumes, military and civil, we 

 are reminded of a further difference of kindred nature. 

 For here among the non-official, there are fewer remnants 

 of those class-distinctions in dress which were everywhere 

 pronounced during the more militant past. The blouse of 

 the French workman stamps him in a way in which the 

 workman in England is not stamped by his comparatively 

 varied dress; and the French woman-servant is much more 

 clearly identifiable as such by cap and gown than is her 

 sister in England. Along with this obliteration of visible 

 distinctions carried further at home than abroad, there is 

 another kind of obliteration also carried further. Official 

 costumes, in early times worn constantly, have tended in 



