FRENCH AND ENGLISH MARRIAGE-MARKET.
Lovely woman appears to be a drug in the Parisian marriage-market. Young lions have been for some time shy of taking lionesses to wife; and according to the Salut Public-
“A petition addressed to the Senate is now being signed by the female operatives in this city, in which the petitioner pray that all men who attain the age of forty without marrying may be compelled to pay a tax as unproductive members of society.”
The female operatives of Paris can hardly be expected to have the least idea of political economy; for, if they had any, they would be considerably wiser, not only than the males of their class, but than the vast majority of Frenchmen; French statesmen inclusive. It is, therefore, natural that they should request the legislature to encourage matrimony by imposing upon celibacy a duty which they, doubtless, would wish to be rendered prohibitive. Their proposal to create a demand for wives by an artificial stimulant is not more absurd than the mercantile protectionism of their countrymen.
How different, and how much more enlightened, is the conduct of our own young women, and how much more happy are its results! English girls, whose fathers are the constant readers of a Press which devotes itself the the advocacy of sound commercial doctrines, well know that a demand, whether for goods and chattels or for hearts and hands, can only be maintained by a satisfactory supply. They know that if an article is unsaleable because it is inferior, no legislative interference will avail to promote its purchase. Accordingly they devote all their energies to that self-cultivation which enables them to offer an attractive commodity. Their days are devoted, partly to storing their minds with useful knowledge, and acquiring domestic arts and pleasing accomplishments; partly to bodily exercise, with a view to the improvement of their figures, and the enrichment of their cheeks with a healthy rosearte bloom.
Not only do the young women of England, high and low, excel those of France in the knowledge and practice of that species of economy which is called political, but also in personal frugality and thrift. So that their moderation, in attire especially, is known to all men; and the consequence is, that they are eagerly inquired for, and experience no difficulty whatever in disposing of themselves to the best advantage. Whilst the French sorts are flat, they are buoyant; whereas the foreign descriptions are heavy, natives are brisk and lively; and when, in Paris, blondes and brunettes are alike depressed, in London they are both looking up. Thus the catching daughters of England are enabled to provide for themselves off their own hooks, and are not driven to stoop to the clumsy and humiliating expedient of begging Parliament to procure them unwilling husbands by the imposition of a bachelor-tax.
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