BACHELOR, in its most general acceptation, is applied to a man, who remains in a state of ce libacy.
Almost all nations have regarded bachelors as a set of delinquents, who withhold from the state an important part of its due advantages, and who are therefore fairly liable to peculiar penalties. It is one of the 613 precepts of the Rabbins, that all per sons ( with very few exceptions) are bound to marry at the age of twenty ; and it is a maxim frequent among these casuists, that he who does not, endea vour to leave children behind him ought to be ac counted a homicide.
Among the Lacedemonians, bachelors were brand ed with infamy, excluded from all civil and military offices, and even debarred from the public spectacles and amusements. They were obliged to appear at certain festivals, to be led naked round the market place, and thus exposed to the public derision. These insults were sometimes accompanied with blows and scourging; and, to complete the affront, they were forced to sing certain songs composed for their own disgrace. Among the Romans, too, celibacy, though frequent, was always greatly discouraged. Fines were often imposed by the censors on old bachelors; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions an old sta tute, by which all persons were commanded to marry as soon as they reached the age of maturity. A
direct law against celibacy was proposed, at the de sire of Augustus, by the consuls Papius and Pop pmus, from whom it received the name of Lex Papia Poppcca. This law, the immediate design of which was to repair the desolation occasioned by the civil wars, met with great opposition from the nobility. It provided, that whoever in the city should have three children, in other parts of Italy four, and in the provinces five, should be entitled to certain pri vileges and immunities; and that they who lived in celibacy should be incapable of succeeding to an in heritance, except of their nearest relations, unless they married within 100 days after the deed of the testator.
In this country taxes have occasionally been levied on bachelors; and at present, by statute 25 Geo. III. cap. 43, the taxes imposed on the public in general are, in some cases, increased with regard to bachelors, particularly the duty on servants. (F4)