Broadside regarding an Act of Parliament

Commentary

This broadside begins: 'A NEW APPROVED ACT OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE BENEFIT OF Young Men, Old Men, Maids, Wives, Widows, Old Maids, Bachelors, &c.' It was printed by Sanderson of the High Street, Edinburgh, and includes an illustration of four well-attired individuals.

What follows is a humorous list of resolutions that were seemingly passed by an Act of Parliament, including one which states that 'every bachelor, at the age of forty, be compelled to keep two wives, to make up for lost time'. Another declares that 'no married woman shall lie snoring in her bed after seven o'clock in the morning'. The list of thirteen resolutions are all of a similar nature to the two mentioned here, and would have proved highly amusing to the readership of the day.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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