To the gentlemen of England,
(Being bachelors or widowers,)
The remonstrance of their faithful
fellow-subject,
SHEWETH,-
That Her Most Gracious Majesty, Victoria, by
the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, did, on
the 23rd day of November last past, declare and pronounce
to Her Most Honourable Privy Council, Her Majesty’s
Most Gracious intention of entering into the bonds
of wedlock.
That Her Most Gracious Majesty, in so making
known Her Most Gracious intention to Her Most Honourable
Privy Council as aforesaid, did use and employ the
words—’It is my intention to ally
myself in marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg
and Gotha.’
That the present is Bissextile, or Leap Year,
in which it is held and considered lawful for any
lady to offer and submit proposals of marriage to
any gentleman, and to enforce and insist upon acceptance
of the same, under pain of a certain fine or penalty;
to wit, one silk or satin dress of the first quality,
to be chosen by the lady and paid (or owed) for, by
the gentleman.
That these and other the horrors and dangers
with which the said Bissextile, or Leap Year, threatens
the gentlemen of England on every occasion of its
periodical return, have been greatly aggravated and
augmented by the terms of Her Majesty’s said
Most Gracious communication, which have filled the
heads of divers young ladies in this Realm with certain
new ideas destructive to the peace of mankind, that
never entered their imagination before.
That a case has occurred in Camberwell, in which
a young lady informed her Papa that ‘she intended
to ally herself in marriage’ with Mr. Smith
of Stepney; and that another, and a very distressing
case, has occurred at Tottenham, in which a young lady
not only stated her intention of allying herself in
marriage with her cousin John, but, taking violent
possession of her said cousin, actually married him.
That similar outrages are of constant occurrence,
not only in the capital and its neighbourhood, but
throughout the kingdom, and that unless the excited
female populace be speedily checked and restrained
in their lawless proceedings, most deplorable results
must ensue therefrom; among which may be anticipated
a most alarming increase in the population of the
country, with which no efforts of the agricultural
or manufacturing interest can possibly keep pace.
That there is strong reason to suspect the existence
of a most extensive plot, conspiracy, or design, secretly
contrived by vast numbers of single ladies in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and now
extending its ramifications in every quarter of the
land; the object and intent of which plainly appears
to be the holding and solemnising of an enormous and
unprecedented number of marriages, on the day on which
the nuptials of Her said Most Gracious Majesty are
performed.
