[Illustration: George Frederick Muntz, M.P.]
The enlightened electors, however, did not take kindly to the bearded
politician. It is related by Dr Hedderwick, the well-known Glasgow
journalist, that at the time the moustache movement was making slow
progress, the candidate for Linlithgowshire was an officer in the
Lancers, a man of ability, family, and fashion, who wore a heavily
hirsute upper lip. He received an intimation from a leader of his party
that his moustache might prejudice him in the eyes of a rural
population. The candidate replied that he had already considered the
point, but it was the rule in his regiment that it would be cowardly to
succumb, and that he was "determined to face it out."
We have it on good authority that a Cabinet Minister, about 1855, caused
a gentleman to be told that the beard and moustache did not look well on
a man holding a civic position under the Crown. This Minister did not
then imagine that shortly men with beards and moustaches would sit by
his side as members of the Cabinet.
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