date

1818. Oct. 28 Parl. Reform Bill
1818. Oct. 28

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons

'.2. Electors Who

Univ

III. Females

10

{8}

5

2. Suppose /Follow/ her sins[?] in the married state /wedded and bedded/. More inconsistencies, more spots /points/ /marks/ for the shafts of ridicule to fasten on /shoot at/. As a sovereign she is mistress over her husband: as a wife she is subject to his will. Suppose a disagreement - and unless a right be gained to the flitch of bacon disagreements there must be - suppose a disagreement - how by whom, in what manner shall it be terminated The characteristic right suppose it exercised by force, will this be treason? treason in the principal, treason in all accomplices? /aiders and abetters?/

In any imaginable shape suppose personal cruelty on his part, what /where/ shall be the remedy at what hands shall it be sought? The late Princess suppose her Queen and thus unfortunate would she have had to sue before /become suitor to/ Sir William Scot?

[Pencil note:] To the next page

[Pencil note:] From p

Suppose her - for though royal she is not only human but female suppose her unfaithful to his bed. Where now is to be his remedy. First come divorce from bed and board. Must he now be suitor to Sir William? Then comes the action for damages, for damages to be assessed by a Jury, suppose /say/ the Court of King's Bench. All this done /concluded/ still it is but the beginning of sorrows. For completion comes the Act of Parliament. But the royal assent by whom shall it be given? By the royal offender herself or else by nobody. Degraded /Dragged/ through the Spiritual Court, dragged through the Common Law Court now comes the last seal to be put by herself to her own shame.
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  • Title: [1818 Oct. 28 Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 Oct. 28

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Reasons

    '.2. Electors Who

    Universality

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    2

    Against all /the/ claim of females to the exercise of monarchical power how many and how strong the reasons none of which have any application to the exercise of this remote and almost imperceptible fraction!

    What a contrast between the vigour belonging to the public and political and the weakness belonging /inherent/ in the private and sexual character!

    Whatever be her condition in respect of marriage - maiden wife or widow how prodigious a surface does not a female monarch present to the shafts of ridicule.

    1. If a virgin, strong as so that character the /her/ chaste bashfulness of her Majesty her aversion will of course be to a connection with the other sex, by most powerful her own predominant her ever predominant affection - her love for her dear subjects /people/ she will be forced to overcome it. The important choice by whom then shall it be made? By her Privy Council? by her Cabinet Council? by any one but herself? If so, in respect of this most important of all choices /functions/ she would be inferior in felicity and power /in power and means of felicity be inferior/ to the meanest of her subjects. Well then by her own royal self must the choice be made? Now then sounds the trumpet of invitation[?] all over Europe. Her Majesty is in want of a husband. /Wanted by and for her Majesty, a male partner to her bed./ Not to speak of subject for little less unnatural than union with another species would be confusion of monarchical with subject blood. Not to speak of subjects in flock a crowd /an army/ of wooers from all the /every/ Courts in Europe. The ceremony of the handkerchief is now reversed: male the head at which the implement is tossed: female and maiden the hand by which it is tossed.

    [Marginal note:] The counterpart of Mahometanism is acted by Christianity.
  • Title: [1818 Oct. 28 Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 Oct. 28

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Reasons

    '.2. Electors Who

    Univ.

    III. Females

    12

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    3. All these from ploughshares passed over [...?]

    3. Behold her now a widow. The King is immortal. Thus much we know from Blackstone. A Queen Regnant is by [...?] of law a King. This we know from the same [...?] /sovereign/ authority: she is therefore immortal likewise. But though immortal she is so alas! alas! in no other than a legal sense. The partner of her bed, though master of this Lamp of immortality, he shares not in the attribute: Mortal he [...?] in every sense - in law therefore as well as in the opposite reason, he may be supposed to die. In a word he is dead. The royal wife becomes a no less royal widow. Meantime the demand for progeny - understand always for fear of [...?] the public demand for progeny remains still unsatisfied. The royal Rubicon having been passed once for all, the repugnancy to advertisement becomes /is now/ less inflexible. Comes over another flock of suitors, and another handkerchief and the like parabola is described by another handkerchief.

    [marginal note:] his crown demises, but the fair wearer never dies.
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