Madame 011ivier has, it is said, hinted to all her
friends that she wears high dresses of an evening, and expects the ladies who visit- her to do the same. In other words, the Empress, who has. hitherto been dictatrix in all such matters, is called upon to imitate her husband's example, and surrender the personal power. We doubt if she will give way so easily, or if the great ladies who. follow her will consent to a constitutional regime which will make them all dowdiee. The innovation is much more likely to produce a furious opposition, the Court parties dressing and undressing against one another as Josephine Beauharnais and Madame Tallies used to do. Madame 011ivier's example may, however, produce this useful result,—that low dresses will not be compulsory on any whose beauty they do not increase. It is a dangerous experiment, however, to tempt all pretty Frenchwomen to proclaim themselves Imperialists.
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