e no _sons_ or _brothers_, they cannot testify their esteem
for it by choosing his _daughters_ or _sisters_. I am for no restraint
upon the _members of either sex_; for if the honour, integrity, or great
capacity of a _fine lady_ should recommend her to the intimacy or
confidence of a _Prime Minister_, in consequence of which he should get
her a _place_--would it not be very hard that this very act of mutual
friendship must render her incapable of doing either _him_ or _her
country_ any real service in the _senate-house_? Is _freedom_ consistent
with _restraint_? or can we propose to serve our country by obstructing
the natural operations of _love and gratitude_? I would not be understood
to propose increasing the number of members. Let every county or
corporation choose _a man or a woman_, as they think proper; and if either
of the members should be married, let it be in the power of the
_constituents_ to return both _husband and wife as one member_, but not to
sit at the same time; from whence would accrue great strength to our
constitution, by having the _house_ well attended, without the present
disagreeable method of _frequent calls_, and putting several _members_ to
the expense and disgrace of being brought up to town in the custody of
_messengers_; for if a _country gentleman_ should like _fox-hunting_, or
any other _rural diversion_, better than attending his _duty in
Parliament_, let him send up his _wife_. Or if an _officer in the army_
should be obliged to be at his post in _Ireland_, the _Mediterranean_, the
_West Indies_, or aboard the _fleet_, a thousand leagues off, or upon any
_public embassy_, if his _wife_ should happen to be chosen, never fear
that she would do the _nation's business_, full as well. Besides, in
several affairs of great consequence, the resolutions might perhaps be
much more agreeable to the tenderness of _our sex_ than the roughness of
_yours_. As, for instance, it hath often been thought unnatural for
_soldiers_ to promote _peace_. When a debate, therefore, of that sort
should be to come on, if the _soldiers_ staid at home, and their _wives_
attended, it would very well become the softness of _the female sex_ to
show a regard for their _husbands_; especially if they should be such
_pretty, smart, young fellows_, as make a most considerable figure at a
review." The lady writer goes on at some length, that she has a borough of
her own, and will be certainly returned whether she marries or