Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/272

 steemed Gentlemen, or to rank among the antient Families.

Lordship smiled. Well, Madam, says his Lordship, then you must let the Tradesmen keep their Money too, as well as keep their Daughters; and we shall continue to decline and become poor, by our riotous and extravagant Living, and so, in a few Ages more, the Wealth of the Nation may be almost all in the Hands of the trading Part of the People; and the decayed Nobility may be as Despicable as they may be Poor. Pray, added he, what would all our noble Blood do for us without our Estates? And pray, Madam, says he, be pleased to look into Things, and see how many noble Families are, at this time, the Offspring of Trade; we do not find, that their Posterity are less valued among the Nobility, or less deserve it. Two Dukes, adds his Lordship, are, at this time, the Grandsons, and one Nobleman, the Son of Sir Josiah Child, who was but a Tradesman; and the noble Families of Excester, of Onslow, of Ar, of many more, are married to the Daughters of Tradesmen; and, on the other hand, the Sons of Sir James Bateman, Sir Thomas Scawen, and several others, are married to the Daughters of our Nobility.

Lordship was going on; but the begg'd him to say no more of that, fearing he would have brought it down to her self at last; and so the Discourse went off. But the Lady was handsomely reproved.

are some of the Fruits of unequal Marriages, and in which much of this Matrimonial Whoredom may be committed; and I call it so, because the submitting to lie with a Man, only on the Account of a Settlement or