The Reasonabless of the Act is plain, for that unmarried People are, as it were, useless to the State; they are, like Drones in a Hive, reaping the Advantage of other People's Labours; they have their Liberties and Freedoms secured by the Loss of other Men's Lives, and do not, from their own Loins, repair the native Strength of the Kingdom; they are not so good as the Spider, which hangs in the Loom drawn from her own Bowels: On the other Hand, it is reasonable to ease such in Taxes, as have numerous Families to the Advantage of the Commonwealth; for these are at daily Charge in Breeding up their Issue for the Defence and Safety of the Kingdom.
Sophia. Your Notions are very good and proper; but how will you be able to put them into Practice? I hope you will not solicit this Bill yourself at the House of Commons; you ought to have some Way or other to communicate it to some particular Member, that he may bring it in, as his own, and get a good Reward for his Pains from the Court. Do not you remember, Mrs. Murray told us, the other Day, how her Husband was served about his Project of Exchequer Bills? They got it to themselves, and did not give the honest Gentleman one Groat for his Invention. Now, Madam, if you could make yourself a Portion by their Making an Act, you would do very well, you would serve yourself and your Country; but, if this Act passeth, I do not find, that you and I shall be the better for it, for the Men are still left to the Liberty of Chusing, and they will chuse for the best Portions; we are no nearer the Marriage-bed, than before. Pray think of some compulsive Act, that may inforce them to marry me and you.
Politica. It will be very difficult to get a particular Clause in our Favour, it will cost us, at least, our Maidenheads; and then, you know, we need not much trouble our Heads about Matrimony, we need not shut the Stable-door when the Steed is stolen. Pray, Madam, let me hear how you would have it for your own Advantage? It is now your Turn to propose.
Sophia. Nature has made all Things on a Level: Our first Father made no Jointure in Marriage, nor had our first Mother any Portion. Adam was Lord, and Eve was Mistress of the Universe; and we ought to tread in the Steps of our Lady Mother, and bring our Husband no more than what Nature hath given us. Settlements and Portions never came into Custom, till such Time as Murder and Rapine had entered the World, and Dowries were first brought into Fashion by the Posterity of Cain. The hellish Miser, which the other Day made so many Scruples about my Portion, Did you not observe the Mark of Cain in his Forehead? The Match-brokers look just like the wandering Jews in England, followed by the Curse of God into all Countries where they come.
Now, it is an easy Matter for the Parliament of England to bring Marriages on the same Level, as was designed at first by Nature. I will propose how: Suppose every Gentleman of one-thousand Pounds per Annum, was obliged to marry Gentlewomen of such Quality and Portion with ourselves, and, if he would not marry at all, his Estate should become forfeited to the Use of the Publick.
Politica. That would be hard, to take away all a Man has in the World, because he will not marry.
Sophia. We will then find a Medium: Suppose we build and endow them an Alms-house with their own Money, where every one of them shall have a convenient Apartment, with a Bed, and two Pair of Sheets, one Chair, one Candlestick, a Chamber-pot, and Fire-Place, and some other cheap Necessaries. We will allow them one Coat a Year, with a yellow Badge on the Arm, as the Mark of a Batchelor; and every Ten of them shall have one old Woman to wait upon them: They shall be chiefly fed with Water-gruel, and Barley-broth; and, instead of Meat, they shall eat Potatoes, Jerusalem Artichokes, Turnips, Carrots, and Parsnips; for you know they come into that Hospital, because they do not love Flesh.
Politica. Oh! fye Madam, fye upon you! that would use brisk young Gentlemen at such a cruel Rate: This is downright Tyranny.
Sophia. I am sorry to see you so tender of those, who are so cruel to our Sex: But here is no Cruelty at all in the Case; consider the Thing rightly, Madam, and you will find it otherwise: We esteem it the highest Charity to provide Alms-houses for the antient superannuated Poor, who are past their Labour; now a Man that is not come to his Labour of Generation, at twenty-five Years of Age, is certainly past it, and we ought to reckon him as superannuated, and grown an old Boy, and not fit to be trusted with what he has, as not knowing the Use and Benefit of Riches.