| MARRIAGE was not always the voluntary proceeding we now find it. It was compulsory among the Greeks. The Spartans could not tolerate celibacy, and by the laws of Lycurgus criminal proceedings could be taken against those who married too late or unsuitably, as well as against those who did not marry at all. It went hard with the latter. Should any man remain single beyond a certain age he was publicly scorned, and was made to do penance by walking naked in the winter through the market place, singing a satirical song on himself. In the French settlement of Canada women were sent over after the men and the single men, that they might be forced to marry , were subjected to heavy taxation and to restrictions on their trade and their movements generally. Those who married were dealt with, on the other hand, in a generous spirit. Not only were they provided with a good wife and comfortable home, but they were awarded according to the number of their offspring. The father of ten children was pensioned for life at the rate of 300 livres a year. If he had twelve children the allowance increased to 400 livres, and it went up to 1,200 livres when fifteen children blessed the union. The conditions were reversed in the English colonies, for there the settlers welcomed the other sex, and did not hesitate to pay traders heavily in tobacco weight for every marriageable woman they brought over. As far back, however, as 1695 the local authorities of Eastham in Massachusetts voted that every unmarried man in the township should kill six blackbirds or three crows yearly while he remained single, producing the scalps in proof, and as penalty for not obeying the order he was forbidden to marry until he made up all arrears. The requirement in this case was almost nominal; but it was not so in Maryland, where half a century later the Colonial Assembly imposed a tax of five shillings yearly upon all bachelors above thirty-five years of age (and on widowers without children) who were possessed of £300. There was a similar graduated tax on bachelors in England in the reign of William III. Any commoner who was a bachelor at twenty-five had to pay a shilling fine, yearly, and the amount was increased in accordance with rank or title, any ducal offender being taxed to the extent of £12 10s. yearly. The taxes grew heavier before they were removed, and the time came when bachelors were called upon to pay an extra tax on their servants. Thus we see the old states as well as young ones have found out that their prosperity depends upon its married citizens. The best subjects, as Lord Bacon |
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