when and where you liked or not at all.
There were infamous dens in the Fleet where
ragged-cassocked divines, redolent of the
aqua vitæ bottle, and the onion and tobacco
odours of Mount Scoundrel, were always
ready to perform the marriage ceremony for
half-a-guinea, or less, the witness being some
boon companion of the parson, or his
servant-maid. One Mr. Keith had a "marriage
shop" in May Fair, where upwards of six
thousand marriages were celebrated annually,
with promptitude and dispatch, and at a very
low rate indeed. In the country there were
itinerant marryers who went by the gracefully-dignified
and canonical names of hedge-parsons
and couple-beggars, and who married
a drunken tinker to a beggar's callet for
anything they could get—a shilling, a lump of
bacon, or a can of small ale. Into such utter
contempt and scandal had our matrimonial
polity followed, that continental nations
refused to recognise the legality of an English
marriage; and Holland and some other
countries compelled such of their subjects as
had contracted a matrimonial alliance in
England to be married again publicly
on their return. These disgraceful facts are
corroborated by Smollett, by Tindal, by the
learned Picart, in the Ceremonies and
Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the
Known World, by the newspapers of the
day, and by the parliamentary debates. To
put an end to this abominable state of things,
a new marriage bill was introduced, in
seventeen hundred and fifty-three, by Lord
Hardwicke. In the Commons it was bitterly
opposed. Mr. Fox, who had himself married
clandestinely the eldest daughter of the
Duke of Richmond, contended that it
would be of the most dangerous consequence
to the female sex, and that it would
endanger our very existence; for that without
a continuous supply of laborious and industrious
poor no nation could long exist, which
supply could only be got by promoting
marriage among such people. Mr. Nugent said
that a public marriage was against the genius
and nature of our people (hear Nugent!)
and that our people were exceedingly fond of
private marriages, and saving a little money.
(Hear him! Good!) Finally, Mr. Charles
Townshend, laying his hand on his heart,
declared it one of the most cruel enterprises
against the fair sex that ever entered into
the heart of man, and suspected some latent
design in it to secure all the heiresses in the
kingdom to the eldest sons of noble and rich
families. (Immense cheering, of course.) In
spite, however, of the eloquence of the
disinterested Fox, the patriotic Nugent, and the
sentimental Townshend, the bill, after some
violent debates, one of which continued until
three o'clock in the morning; and after a wise
and luminous speech from Solicitor-General
Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield; passed
the Commons, and became law. Mr. Keith
and his brethren of the Fleet found that
their occupation was gone. Marriages, by
the new law, were obliged to be entered
in the parish register, and a strict line of
demarcation was drawn between the married
and the unmarried. Experience soon
showed that instead of stopping marriage
and the growth of population, the act had
the contrary effect, by divesting the marriage
ceremony of disgraceful associations, and by
making it, not a mere verbal promise, but a
life contract.

Before seventeen hundred and fifty-three,
no exact record of the number of marriages
existed. Since that date, the marriage registers
have been preserved in England, and
show an increase from fifty thousand nine
hundred and seventy-two, in seventeen
hundred and fifty-six, to sixty-three thousand
three hundred and ten, in seventeen hundred
and sixty-four. The "rage of marrying,"
writes the amiable Chesterfield, in seventeen
hundred and sixty-four, " is  very prevalent;"
just as if he had been alluding to the rage
for South Sea stock or for wearing bag-wigs
or high-heeled shoes. After many fluctuations,
the marriages rose to seventy, eighty,
ninety, and a hundred thousand annually,
and in the last census year (eighteen
hundred and fifty-one), to a hundred and
fifty-four thousand two hundred and six.
Fourteen millions were added to the population.
The increase of the population was a
hundred and eighty-seven per cent, or at the
rate of one per cent annually.

As regards the present conjugal condition
of the people, we may state, there were in
eighteen hundred and fifty-one, in Great
Britain, three million three hundred and
ninety-one thousand two hundred and seventy-one
husbands, and three million four hundred
and sixty-one thousand five hundred and
twenty-four wives. By this statement it
would seem that every gude wife has not a
gude man, the number of wives considerably
exceeding the husbands. Or, lest it should be
thought that any of the three million and a
half husbands entertain Mahommedan notions
and have more than one wife, it must be
remembered that some thousands of the
husbands of England were serving their country
abroad in eighteen hundred and fifty-one;
many were engaged in commerce in far distant
lands; some were "to Aleppo gone, master o'
the Tiger," leaving their wives to munch
chesnuts at home; while a few, shall we whisper
it, may have bolted from their wives
altogether. There were three hundred and
eighty-two thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine
widowers, and seven hundred and ninety-five
thousand five hundred and ninety widows.
(A terrible phalanx to think on!) Of bachelors
above twenty and under twenty-one
there were one million six hundred and
eighty-nine thousand one hundred and
sixteen; of spinsters of the same ages, one
million seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand
one hundred and ninety-four. In many