Daily National Democrat

Marriageable Women in France.—A singular movement is in progress in Lyons—
Lyons, the home, according to Mr. Bulwer, of Claude Melnotte and Pauline Deschapelles, and the scene of their early and lugubrious loves. But, in Lyons now, it seems, that there are not enough of fascinating Melnottes who are disposed to win the hands and hearts of the "ladies of Lyons" who desired to be wooed and won. These Lyonesses complain that the men won't marry them, and they are forced to lead a life of single unblessedness. Having exhausted probably all the usual means which the female sex know so well how to apply, having found that the fascinations of crinoline, of dresses broad in the skirt and low in the neck, of smiles and simpers and handsome faces, and saucy-looking caps, and pretty ankles, are of no avail in softening the obdurate hearts of the dwellers of Lyons, these females have commenced an open warfare against the sex, with a view of forcing them into matrimony and their arms. A petition has been circulated, and extensively signed by these ladies, setting forth, in pitiful terms, the hardness of their case, and the hearts of the men, and asking the government to impose a special tax upon all men in France, who shall have arrived at the age of forty years without having entered, as Billy Birch used to say, "into the bands of padlock." They represent these bachelors as "unproductive" members of the community, and therefore, fit subjects for special taxation. Paris cor. Alta.