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.

What I say, in this Respect, is the common Practice of Mankind in Things of another Nature: The Husbandman, if he has got a Tree in his Orchard, that has grown a long Time, and has bore no Fruit, he cuts him down for Fuel, and plants another in his Room: Why may we not do the same by the human Batchelor Trees; especially, since they are grafted on so good Stocks, and are so well watered and pruned? That is a very ill Sort of Seed that will fructify in no Soil. It is the same Thing in Government; a Batchelor is a useless Thing in the State, does but cumber the Ground, and takes up the Room of a generous Plant, which would be of great Advantage to the Commonwealth. I tell you, Madam, according to the Laws of Nature and Reason, a Batchelor is a Minor, and ought to be under the Government of the Parish in which he lives; for, though he be a Housekeeper and for himself, as they call it, yet, having no Family, he cannot be reckoned a good Commonwealth's-Man; and, if he is not a good one, he is a bad one, which ought not to be suffered; nay, he is not a perfect Man till such Time as he is married, for it is the Woman is the Perfection of the Man.

Politica. Madam, I know you are endowed with true English Principles, pray consider, whether the Law you mention be not destructive of Magna Charta, since, without Cause or Offence, it deprives a Man of his Property, and takes from him the Estate which legally descended to him from his Ancestors.

Sophia. Madam, I find you hold me to hard Meat, I must give Reasons for the Passing of my Bill: I argue thus, A Person who has broken, and forfeited his Right to the Magna Charta of Nature, ought to have no Protection by the Magna Charta of Englishmen: I prove my Proportion thus, A Batchelor of Age, as such, has broken the Laws of Nature: Increase and Multiply is the Command of Nature, and of the God thereof; now, having broken the Laws of Nature, he ought not to have any Protection from the Laws of England, because such, as have Protection by those Laws, do contribute to the Support of those Laws, which an adult Batchelor does not do according to the Constitution of Magna Charta: Our Fore-fathers purchased the Liberties of Magna Charta, with the Hazard of Life and Limb; they sealed that Writing with the Blood of themselves and their Children, and, after the same Manner those Privileges were procured, must they be supported and maintained; now a Batchelor contributes little or nothing to the Support of our Freedoms; the Money he pays in Taxes is inconsiderable to the Supplies given by others in Children, which are an Addition to the native Strength of the Kingdom: Money is like the soft and easy Showers, which only cool and moisten the Surface of the Earth; Children are like the soaking Rain which goes to the Root, and makes Trees and Vegetables fructify for the Use of Man: Indeed, my Dear, a Batchelor can, in no Sense, be esteemed a good Englishman.

From the Reasons aforesaid, I cannot think the Batchelors are injured by my Bill. Acts of Parliament ought not to respect private Interests; they are made for the Good of the Community, for the Advantage of the whole People of England, and you shall seldom find any Act passed, but what is to the Detriment of some particular Persons: We thought it no Injustice to prohibit the Importation of East-India Silks, notwithstanding the Detriment thereby accrued to that Company; and perhaps put all the Ladies in Court and City into the Murligrubs. These Things the good Parliament never considered, but passed the Bill in Favour of the Multitude of Weavers in this Kingdom, who get Abundance of Children for the Support of the Nation, and which must have starved, if foreign Commodities had been imported to the Destruction of the Weaving Trade. The Batchelors, that would come under this Statute, are but an inconsiderable Number, compared with the aggregate Sum of the whole Kingdom.

Politica. Suppose, Madam, your Reasons should weigh with the House of Commons: There is another Sort of Batchelors, that answer the End of their Creation, and yet are not married; I mean such as multiply their Species on Misses and Concubines, which, in plain English, are Whores: Nay, they can content themselves to do it with their female Servants, who serve under them for that Purpose; these will find a