Pride-and-Prejudice

Austen’s six brothers would each have eleven children, and a third would
have ten. Historians have argued that the penchant for large families during
this era reflects national propaganda in favor of having many children; more
babies meant more bodies for the building of empire and the ongoing wars
with France.
15 (p. 366) special license: Upper-class couples could be married by special
permission of an Anglican bishop and without the otherwise required banns,
or public proclamation for three Sundays running, of the intent to marry. Mrs.
Bennet regards the procurement of a bishop’s license as a status symbol.
However, in an earlier passage, Lydia and Wickham, who do not, in fact,
elope to Scotland, are “married privately in town,” which means that
interested parties with elite connections in London have procured them a
special license to avoid the scandal of a public announcement of this
undesirable marriage.
16 (p. 374) the restoration of peace: Possibly a reference to the brief peace
between England and France following the signing of the Treaty of Amiens
(1802), during which a number of British writers flocked to Paris. The
Napoleonic Wars would soon follow. Some scholars believe that this
reference suggests that Pride and Prejudice, which was published in 1813,
may be set a generation earlier. Austen had indeed written a draft of the novel
in the late 1790s but is believed to have substantially revised it in 1811 and
1812. It is possible that the reference applies to some other, less consequential
“peace” or to a hope for a future end to the wars, which occurred in 1815.