_True Blue_ (Vol. iii., p. 27.).--On the origin of this expression, I must
claim the right to dissent from your correspondent G. F. G., who appears to
have fallen into the error of confining a form of very wide application to
one particular case, in which he discovers a trifling coincidence of fact.
The connexion of the colour blue with truth is of very ancient date, of
which the following may for the present suffice as an example:--
"And by hire beddes hed she made a mew
And covered it with velouettes blew,
In signe of trouth, that is in woman sene."
Chaucer, _Squiere's Tale_.
Blue, in the early practice of the tinctorial art, appears to have been the
most humble of the colours in use, and the least affected by any external
influence; and, down to the present day, if certain tints of recent
invention be excepted, the same character may be claimed for it. What then
more natural, than that it should be taken as the type of immutability, or
that every party, political or religious, should in turn assume it as the
badge of honesty of purpose, and of firm adherence to their principles?