Mr. H.B.  IRVING said that he was an impenitent advocate of the soft or Southern hat.  It was the duty of a hat to afford not only covering for the head but shelter for the eyes, and no topper did this.  A hat should have a flexible brim, which neither topper nor bowler possessed.  It was absurd to wear a hat which could not sustain damage without showing it.  Let there be a revival in the silk-hat industry by all means, but there must be no imposition of any one kind of hat on the public.  The individual must be allowed perfect freedom to wear what he liked. (Hear, hear!) He personally hoped never to be seen either in a pith helmet or a Tam-o’-shanter, but if the whim took him to wear either—­or indeed both—­he claimed the right to do so. (Loud cheers.) Meanwhile he should adhere to his soft hat.

Mr. MASKELYNE, who followed, urged upon the company the desirability of the silk-hat mode.  If tall hats, he said, went out of fashion, what would become of conjurers?  Rabbits could be satisfactorily extracted only from tall hats. (Prolonged cheering.) An omelette made in a sombrero was unthinkable. (Renewed cheering.)

Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT said that all this talk about toppers was pernicious nonsense.  The topper had become obsolete and should not be disinterred.  The only honest form of hat for an honest straightforward man was a white bowler.  A white bowler and a blue serge suit made as stylish and effective a garb as anyone needed.  Soft hats no doubt were comfortable, but they were also slovenly.  Moreover they were not practical.  At a horse sale, for example, you could not rattle them.  As for the plea that tall hats were of value to conjurers, he had no use for such arguments.  Conjurers dealt in illusion and all illusion was retrograde. (Oh!  Oh!).

The Bishop of LINCOLN said that he felt bound to dissociate himself from his, partner’s remarks.  He himself looked upon a silk hat as an essential. (A voice, “With rigging?”) Yes, Sir, with rigging.  But that was not why he advocated it.  He advocated it because it was the proper coping-stone of a gentleman.

The SPEAKER, after eulogising the white tall hat, added that although he was glad that they had Sir SQUIRE BANCROFT with them (Hear, hear) he was bound to remark that not infrequently of late he had seen that illustrious histrion wearing in the streets of London a cloth cap more suitable to the golf-links or the Highlands.  For the devotee of the white hat of a blameless life thus to descend gave him pain.  So distinguished an edifice as Sir SQUIRE, he contended, should not trifle with its top-storey. (Cheers.)

Sir SQUIRE BANCROFT, rising again, expressed regret that his cloth cap should have caused any distress, He wore it, he was bound to admit, for convenience (Oh!) and comfort (Sensation).  But he would not offend again. (Loud cheers.)

At this point the meeting adjourned, but doubtless, taking a hint from the Coal inquiry, it will often be resumed during the coming year.