Page:A century of Birmingham life- or, A chronicle of local events, from 1741 to 1841 (IA centuryofbirming02lang).pdf/35

 We know it is to no purpose to address Fashion herself; she is void of feeling and deaf to argument; but fortunately she is subject to your control : She has been accustomed to listen to your voice and obey your commands.

We, therefore, most earnestly implore your, as our present Hope and future Sovereign, attentively to consider the deplorable situation of our trade, which is in danger of being ruined by this mutability of Fashion; and to give that direction to the public taste, which will ensure our most lively and lasting gratitude, and confirm the general opinion of the exalted virtues of your heart.

And your Petitioners shall ever pray, &c.

December 17, 1791,—The very gracious reply of the Prince we have already noticed: and on Saturday, his Royal Highness having ordered the principal persons of every department of his household into his presence, informed them that they must from that instant discontinue the use of shoe-strings; he desired them to go to his own buckle-maker for what buckles they might want, and he expressed a hope that they would never offend him by the disuse of so important an article of British Manufacture.—His Royal Highness the Duke of York (upon whom the Committee also waited, attended by Major-General Grenville) on the same day personally delivered similar orders to the gentlemen and servants of his household; and the Members of the City of London have assured the Manufacturers that they will use their endeavours, both in their public and private capacities, to extend, as far as possible, the influence of the Prince of Wales's example, of whose beneficent intentions in this, as well as in every other instance, we cannot, indeed, speak too highly. The elegant and frank manner in which his Royal Highness all along expressed himself, and the humanity with which he entered into the petition, has left such an impression upon the minds of the Gentlemen of the Committee, as cannot fail of conveying the most just representation of so amiable a Prince, to the valuable body of men by whom they were deputed.

The deputation (which consisted of Messrs. Cheston, Bellamy, S. Hands, and Bingley, of this Town, and Mr. T. Hipkins, of Walsall) likewise feel themselves under the greatest obligations to Mr. Sheridan and Major General Grenville, through whose polite kindness they were introduced to the Princes; and they were honoured by the company of several of the first Gentlemen of the Prince of Wales's household to a splendid dinner, prepared at the New London Tavern, after which the evening was spent with the utmost conviviality.

It is thought necessary to observe, thetthat [sic] two ridiculous paragraphs, which have appeared in a London paper upon the above subject, were totally unauthorised by the Committee or Deputation, whose names were improperly used in them,

Success attended the efforts of the manufacturers. Royalty smiled upon the buckle, and wore it, but not even the favour of the "first gentleman in Europe" could compel its use. A more potent influence had declared against it, and fashion, in spite of King, Queen, Prince Regent, and the whole Court united, doomed the buckle, and declared in favour of the "unmanly shoe string." On January 23. however, the buckle-makers received this bit of joyful news:-"It is with singular