body of our agricultural and manufacturing population into women! Mrs.
Cobbett must displace her husband, and tell us all about Indian corn.
There must be not a man in Nottingham, except the Duke of Newcastle; and
he trembling lest the Queen should send for him. The tailors, bakers,
carpenters, gardeners, must all be Mrs. Tailors and Mrs. Bakers. The
very name of John Smith must go out. The Directory must be Amazonian.
This commonalty of women must also be, at one and the same time, the
operatives, the soldiers, the virgins, and the legislators of the
country! They must make all we want, fight all our enemies, and even get
up a Queen for us when necessary; for the sovereigns of the hive are
often of singular origin, being manufactured! literally "made to order,"
and that too by dint of their eating! They are fed and stuffed into
royalty! The receipt is, to take any ordinary female bee in its infancy,
put it into a royal cradle or cell, and feed it with a certain kind of
jelly; upon which its shape alters into that of sovereignty, and her
Majesty issues forth, royal by the grace of stomach. This is no fable,
as the reader may see on consulting any good history of bees. In
general, several Queen-bees are made at a time, in case of accidents;
but each, on emerging from her apartment, seeks to destroy the other,
and one only remains living in one hive. The others depart at the head
of colonies, like Dido.

To sum up then the conditions of human society were it to be re-modelled
after the example of the bee, let us conclude with drawing a picture of
the state of our beloved country, so modified. Imprimis, all our working
people would be females, wearing swords, never marrying, and
occasionally making queens. They would grapple with their work in a
prodigious manner, and make a great noise. Secondly, our aristocracy
would be all males, never working, never marrying, (except when sent
for,) always eating or sleeping, and annually having their throats cut.