All quotation marks, hyphens, dashes,
apostrophes and colons have been transcribed as entity references.
All apostrophes and single right quotation marks are encoded as
’.
Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed; all hyphens are
encoded as ‐ and em dashes as —.
The publisher's advertisement following p. 18 has been
omitted.
___________________No political franchise.
Yet a woman of the age of
twenty-one, having the requisite property qualifications, cannot
vote in elections for members of Parliament.
___________________Has a parochial vote.
A woman duly qualified can vote upon
parish questions, and for parish officers, overseers, surveyors, vestry
clerks, &c.
___________________Heiress.
If her father or mother die
intestate (i.e.,
without a will) she takes an equal share with her brothers and sisters of
the personal property i.e., goods,
chattels, moveables), but her eldest brother, if she have one, and his
children, even daughters, will take the real property,
(i.e., not personal property, but
all other, as land, &c.), as the heir-at-law; males and
their issue being preferred to females; if, however, she have sisters only,
then all the sisters take the real property equally. If she be an only
child, she is entitled to all the intestate real and personal
property.
___________________No public employments.
The church and nearly all offices under
government are closed to women. The Post-office affords some little
employment to them; but there is no important office which they can hold,
with the single exception of that of Sovereign.
The professions of law and
medicine,* whether or not closed by
law, are closed in fact. They may engage in trade, and may occupy inferior
situations, such as matron of a charity, sextoness of a church, and a few
parochial offices are open to them. Women are occasionally governors
___________________Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., received
her diploma in America before she walked St. Bartholomew's Hospital
in London.
Page 4
of prisons for women, overseers of the poor, and parish clerks. A woman may be ranger of a park; a woman can take part in the government of a great empire by buying East India Stock.
___________________Domestic servant.
A servant and a master or mistress are
bound by a verbal or written agreement. If no special agreement is made, a
servant is held by the common custom of the realm to be hired from year to
year, and the engagement cannot be put an end to without a month's
notice on either side.
___________________Seduction.
If a woman is seduced, she has no remedy
against the seducer; nor has her father, excepting as he is considered in
law as being her master and she his servant, and the seducer as having
deprived him of her services. Very slight service is deemed sufficient in
law, but evidence of some service is absolutely necessary, whether the
daughter be of full age or under age.
These are the only special laws concerning single women: the law
speaks of men only, but women are affected by all the laws and incur the
same responsibilities in all their contracts and doings as men.
___________________Prohibitions.
These marriages are
prohibited:--A widower with his deceased wife's sister; a
widow with the brother of her deceased husband; a widower with his deceased
wife's sister's daughter, for she is by affinity in the same
degree as a niece to her uncle by consanguinity; a widower with a daughter
of his deceased wife by a former husband; and a widower with his deceased
wife's mother's sister. Consanguinity or affinity, where the
children are illegitimate, is equally an impediment.
A lunatic or idiot cannot lawfully contract a marriage, but insanity
after marriage does not make the marriage null and void.
A lunatic may contract a marriage during a lucid interval. Deaf and dumb
people may marry by signs.
The consent of the father or guardians is necessary to the marriage of
an infant (i.e., a
person under twenty-one), unless the marriage takes place by banns.
The consent of the mother is not necessary if there be a father or a
guardian appointed by him.
___________________Bigamy.
A second marriage while a husband or wife
is living is felony, and punishable by transportation.
___________________Breach of promise.
An agreement to marry made by a man and
woman who do not come under any of these disabilities is a contract of
betrothment, and either party can bring an action upon a refusal to
complete the contract in a superior court of Common Law.
___________________Celebration, Banns.
Marriages may be celebrated as a religious
ceremony after the requisite public proclamations or banns, or as a secular
form.
___________________Civil marriage.
The object of the
Act* for authorizing civil marriages
was to relieve Dissenters and those who could not conscientiously join in
the formulary of the Church. Due provision is made for necessary publicity,
and the marriage can be legally contracted in a Register Office.
___________________Superintendent Registrar.
Marriages in the Church of England
(without banns or licence), marriages of Quakers, Jews, Dissenters, and
Roman Catholics, and marriages according to the civil or secular form, must
be preceded by a given notice from of the parties to the
Superintendent-Registrar of the district.
___________________Scotch marriages.
The marriage law of Scotland is founded
upon the Canon
Law (i.e., rules drawn from
Scriptures and the writings of the Church). In Scotland there are regular
and irregular marriages. Irregular marriages are legal without any
ceremony, and are of three sorts.
1. By a promise of marriage given in writing or proved by a reference to
the oath of the party, followed by consummation.
2. By the solemn mutual declaration of a man and woman, either verbally
or in writing, expressing that the parties consent to take each other for
husband and wife.
3. By notorious cohabitation as man and wife.
Persons living in England and having illegitimate
___________________6th and 7th of Wm. IV. chap.
85.
Page 6
children, cannot by going to Scotland, there marrying, and then returning, legitimatize their children in England. A domicile (or abiding home) in Scotland, and a marriage of the father and mother, legitimatizes the children in Scotland whenever born.
___________________Foreign marriages valid.
Lawful marriages in foreign countries are
valid in England unless they are directly contrary to our laws.
Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is valid in England, if it
has been celebrated in a country where such marriage is legal, provided the
parties were at the time of the marriage domiciled in such country.
___________________Married women no legal
existence.
A man and wife are one person in law; the
wife loses all her rights as a single woman, and her existence is entirely
absorbed in that of her husband. He is civilly responsible for her acts;
she lives under his protection or cover, and her condition is called
coverture.
___________________A husband has a right to the
person of his wife.
A woman's body belongs to her
husband; she is in his custody, and he can enforce his right by a writ of
habeas corpus.
___________________Her personal property becomes
his.
What was her personal property before
marriage, such as money in hand, money at the bank, jewels, household
goods, clothes, &c., becomes absolutely her husband's, and he may
assign or dispose of them at his pleasure whether he and his wife live
together or not.
___________________He takes her chattels
real.
A wife's chattels real
(i.e., estates held during a term of
years, or the next presentation to a church living, &c.) become her
husband's by his doing some act to appropriate them; but, if the wife
survives, she resumes her property.
___________________Equity.
Equity is defined to be a
correction or qualification of the law, generally made in the part wherein
it faileth, or is too severe. In other words, the correction of that
wherein the law, by reason of its universality, is deficient. While the
Common Law gives the whole of a wife's personal property to her
husband, the Courts of Equity, when he proceeds therein to recover property
in right of his wife, oblige him to make a settlement of some portion of it
upon her, if she be unprovided for and virtuous.
If her property be under 200l.,
or 10l. a-year, a Court of Equity will
not interpose.
___________________Her right to support.
Neither the Courts of Common Law nor
Equity have any
Page 7
direct power to oblige a man to support his wife,--the Ecclesiastical Courts (i.e. Courts held by the Queen's authority as governor of the Church, for matters which chiefly concern religion) and a Magistrate's court at the instance of her parish alone can do this.
___________________His power over her real
property.
A husband has a freehold estate in his
wife's lands during the joint existence of himself and his wife, that
is to say, he has absolute possession of them as long as they both live. If
the wife dies without children, the property goes to his heir, but if she
has borne a child, her husband holds possession until his death.
___________________A married woman's earnings
not her own but her husband's.
Money earned by a married woman belongs
absolutely to her husband; that and all sources of income, excepting those
mentioned above, are included in the term personal property.
___________________A wife's will.
By the particular permission of her
husband she can make a will of her personal property, for by such a
permission he gives up his right. But he may revoke his permission at any
time before probate
(i.e. the exhibiting and proving a
will before the Ecclesiastical Judge having jurisdiction over the place
where the party died).
___________________A mother's rights over
children.
The legal custody of children belongs to
the father. During the life-time of a sane father, the mother has no
rights over her children, except a limited power over infants, and the
father may take them from her and dispose of them as he thinks
fit.
If there be a legal separation of the parents, and there be neither
agreement nor order of the Court, giving the custody of the children to
either parent, then the right to the custody of the children
(except for the nutriment of infants) belongs legally to the father.
___________________Responsibility of a wife.
A married woman cannot sue or be sued for
contracts--nor can she enter into contracts except as the agent of her
husband; that is to say, her word alone is not binding in law, and persons
giving a wife credit have no remedy against her. There are some exceptions,
as where she contracts debts upon estates settled to her separate use, or
where a wife carries on trade separately, according to the custom of
London, &c.
___________________Responsibility of a
hus-
A husband is liable for his wife's
debts contracted before
___________________band for his wife's debts
prior to marriage
marriage, and also for her breaches of trust
committed before marriage.
___________________Witnesses.
Neither a husband nor a wife can be
witnesses against one another in criminal cases, not even after the death
or divorce of either.
___________________Wife cannot bring actions.
A wife cannot bring actions unless the
husband's name is joined.
___________________A wife acts under coercion of her
husband.
As the wife acts under the command and
control of her husband, she is excused from punishment for certain
offences, such as theft, burglary, housebreaking, &c., if committed in
his presence and under his influence. A wife cannot be found guilty of
concealing her felon husband or of concealing a felon jointly with her
husband. She cannot be found guilty of stealing from her husband or of
setting his house on fire, as they are one person in law. A husband and
wife cannot be found guilty of conspiracy, as that offence cannot be
committed unless there are two persons.
___________________Settlements.
It is usual, before marriage, in order to
secure a wife and her children against the power of the husband, to make
with his consent a settlement of some property on the wife, or to make an
agreement before marriage that a settlement shall be made after marriage.
It is in the power of the Court of Chancery to enforce the performance of
such agreements.
___________________Differences between Common Law
and Equity.
Although the Common Law does not allow a
married woman to possess any property, yet in respect of property settled
for her separate use, Equity endeavours to treat her as a single
woman.
She can acquire such property by contract before marriage with her
husband, or by gift from him or other persons.
There are great difficulties and complexities in making settlements, and
they should always be made by a competent lawyer.
___________________Indictment for theft.
When a wife's property is stolen,
the property (legally belonging to the husband) must be laid as his in the
indictment.
___________________Divorce is of two kinds.
Divorce is of two
kinds:--
1st. Divorce à mensâ et thoro, being only a separation from
bed and board.
2nd. Divorce à vinculo matrimonii, being an entire dissolution of
the bonds of matrimony.
The grounds for the first kind of divorce are, 1st. Adultery, 2nd.
Intolerable Cruelty, and 3rd. Unnatural Practices. The Ecclesiastical
Courts can do no more than pronounce for this first kind of divorce, or
rather separation, as the matrimonial tie is not severed, and there is
always a possibility of reconciliation.
The law cannot dissolve a lawful marriage; it is only in the Legislature
that this power is vested. It requires an act of Parliament to constitute a
divorce à vinculo matrimonii, but the investigation rests by usage
with the Lords alone, the House of Commons acting upon the faith that the
House of Lords came to a just conclusion.
This divorce is pronounced on account of adultery in the wife, and in
some cases of aggravated adultery on the part of the husband.
The expenses of only a common divorce bill are between six hundred and
seven hundred pounds, which makes
the possibility of release from the matrimonial bond a privilege of the rich.
A wife cannot be a plaintiff, defendant, or witness in an important part
of the proceeding for a divorce, which evidently must lead to much
injustice.
___________________A wife's
paraphernalia.
A wife' paraphernalia
(i.e., her clothes and ornaments)
which her husband owns during his lifetime, and which his creditors can
seize for his debts, becomes her property on his death.
___________________Her liabilities.
A widow is liable for any debts which she
contracted before marriage, and which have been left unpaid during her
marriage.
A widow is not bound to bury her dead husband, it being the duty of his
legal representative.
___________________A widow's
one-third.
If a man die intestate, the widow, if
there are children, is entitled to one-third of the personality; if
there are no children, to one-half: the other is distributed
among the next of kin, among whom the widow is not counted. If there is no
next of kin the moiety goes to the crown.
The husband can, of course, by will deprive a wife of all right in the
personality.
___________________Quarantine.
A right is granted in Magna Charta to a
widow to remain forty days in her husband's house after his death,
provided she do not marry during that time.
___________________Dower.
A widow has a right to a third of her
husband's lands and tenements for her life. Right of dower is
generally superseded by settlements giving the wife a jointure. If she
accept a jointure she has no claim to dower.
___________________Trustee.
An unmarried woman can be vested with a
trust, but if she marry, the complexities and difficulties are great, from
her inability to enter alone into deeds and assurances.
___________________Executrix.
A single woman can act as executrix under
a will, but a wife cannot accept an executorship without her
husband's consent.
___________________Administratrix.
A woman is capable of holding the office
of administratrix to an intestate personality, and administration will be
granted to her if she be next of kin to the intestate. But a wife cannot
act without the consent of her husband.
If a man place a woman in his house, and treat her as his wife, he is
responsible for her debts.
The law only enforces the parents to maintain such child, and the sum
the father is obliged to pay, after an order of affiliation is proved
against him, never exceeds two shillings and sixpence a week.
The mother, as long as she is unmarried or a widow, is bound to maintain
such child as a part of her family until such child attain the age of
sixteen.
A man marrying a woman having a child or children at the time of such
marriage is bound to support them, whether legitimate or not, until the age
of sixteen.
___________________Disabilities of a natural
child.
The rights of an illegitimate child are
only such as he can acquire; he can inherit nothing, being in the law
looked
Page 12
upon as nobody's son, but he may acquire property by devise or bequest. He may acquire a surname by reputation, but does not inherit one.
The only incapacity under which he labours is that he cannot be
heir-at-law nor next of kin to any person, nor can he have
collateral heirs, but only lineal descendants; if he acquire property and
die without a will, such property will go to the crown unless he have
lineal descendants.
It is not now as it once was, when all existing institutions were
considered sacred and unalterable; and the spirit which made Blackstone an
admirer of, rather than a critic on, every law because it was
law, is exchanged for a bolder and more discriminating spirit,
which seeks to judge calmly what is good and to amend what is bad.
Philosophical thinkers have generally come to the conclusion that the
tendency of progress is gradually to dispense with law,--that is to
say, as each individual man becomes unto himself a law, less external
restraint is necessary. And certainly the most urgently needed reforms are
simple erasures from the statute book. Women, more than any other members
of the community, suffer from over-legislation.
A woman of twenty-one becomes an independent human
creature,* capable of holding and
administering property to any amount; or, if she can earn money, she may
appropriate her earnings freely to any purpose she thinks good. Her father
has no power over her or her property. But if she unites herself to a man,
the law immediately steps in, and she finds herself legislated for, and her
condition of life suddenly and entirely changed. Whatever age she may be
of, she is again considered as an infant,--she is again under
"reasonable restraint,"--she loses her
separate existence, and is merged in that of her husband.
"In short," says Judge Hurlbut, "a woman is courted
and wedded as an angel, and yet denied the dignity of a rational and moral
being ever after."
___________________* With regard to the
property of women, there is taxation without representation, for they pay
taxes without having the liberty of voting for representatives, and indeed
there seems at present no reason why single women should be denied this
privilege.--Note to Christian's
Blackstone.
Page 14
"The next thing that I will show you is this particularitie of
law; in this consolidation which we call wedlock is a locking together; it
is true that man and wife are one person, but understand in what manner.
When a small brooke or little river incorporateth with Rhodanus, Humber, or
the Thames, the poore rivulet loseth her name, it is carried and recarried
with the new associate, it beareth no sway, it possesseth nothing during
coverture. A woman as soone as she is married is called covert, in Latine
nupta, that is vailed, as it were clouded and overshadowed she hath lost
her streame. * * I may more truly farre away say to a married woman, her
new selfe is her superior, her companion, her master. The mastership shee
is fallen into may be called in a terme which civilians borrow from
Esop's Fables, Leonina
societate."*
Truly "she hath lost her streame," she is absorbed, and can
hold nothing of herself, she has no legal right to any property; not even
her clothes, books, and household goods are her own, and any money which
she earns can be robbed from her legally by her husband, nay, even after
the commencement of a treaty of marriage she cannot dispose of her own
property without the knowledge of her betrothed. If she should do so, it is
deemed a fraud in law and can be set aside after marriage as an injury to
her husband.
It is always said, even by those who support the existing law, that it
is in fact never acted upon by men of good feeling. That is true; but the
very admission condemns the law, and it is not right that the good feeling
of men should be all that a woman can look to for simple justice.
There is now a large and increasing class of women who gain their own
livelihood, and the abolition of the laws which give husbands this unjust
power is most urgently needed.
Rich men and fathers might still make what settlements they pleased, and
appoint trustees for the protection of minors and such women as needed
protection; but we imagine it well proved that the principle of protection
is
___________________* The Lawe's Resolutions of
Women's Rights, A.D.1632.
Page 15
wrong, and that the education of freedom and responsibility will enable women to take better care of themselves and others too than can be insured to them by any legal precautions.
Upon women of the labouring classes the difficulty of keeping and using
their own earnings presses most hardly. In that rank of life where the
support of the family depends often on the joint earnings of husband and
wife, it is indeed cruel that the earnings of both should be in the hands
of one, and not even in the hands of that one who has naturally the
strongest desire to promote the welfare of the children.
All who are familiar with the working classes know how much suffering
and privation is caused by the exercise of this right by
drunken and bad men. It is true that men are legally bound to support their
wives and children, but this does not compensate women for the loss of
their moral right to their own property and earnings, nor for the loss of
the mental development and independence of character gained by the
possession and thoughtful appropriation of money; nor, it must be
remembered, can the claim to support be enforced on the part of the wife
unless she appeals to a court of law. Alas, how much will not a woman
endure before she will publicly plead for a maintenance!
Why, we ask, should there be this difference between the married and
unmarried condition of women? And why does marriage make so little legal
difference to men, and such a mighty legal difference to women? In France
it is somewhat more equal; married women have a right, if they marry
without a marriage contract, to claim at the death of a husband half of
whatever he possessed at the time of marriage, or may have gained
afterwards. If a woman have property of her own, she may if she please
marry under the "régime de séparation de corps et de
biens," in which case she has the entire control of her own fortune,
and has no need of trustees. But usually marriages in France are of another
description, or under the "régime dotal," in which case
a portion of the property of the wife is left at the disposal of the
husband, and the rest placed in the hands of trustees, much as it is with
us
in England. The choice which the French law allows is however a great improvement on our law.
In Turkey, daughters succeed equally with sons in houses and landed
property, and always take one-third of the personal property. A
widow receives one-eighth of the personal property, and must be
provided for during her life by the heirs. Women control their own
inheritance when married; the husband has no power over the inherited
portion of his wife or wives.
In Hungary, the common law, before 1849 (the German law is now
introduced), made a broad distinction between inherited and
acquired property, whether landed or personal. Whatever was
inherited went to the heirs; it could not be subject to a will.
As to acquired property, the law only interfered to give
half to the wife; it was her absolute property, of which she might dispose
in any way during life or by will. Among the nobility this law did not
obtain. In cases where inherited property had been so left by the will of
the first acquisitor as to exclude the female sex, the
brothers were oblige to give a handsome sum if they married to their
sisters, and provide for them in a becoming way if they remained
single.
The rights of a widow were great; she was guardian of children,
administrator of property, and, as long as she bore the name of her
husband, she could exercise all the political rights of a man; she could
vote in elections of county officers, and in those of the Deputies to the
Diet.
Single females, according to the Hungarian law, were considered as
minors, who became of age upon marriage, and by marriage came into full
control of all their estates. They were not liable for the debts of their
husbands; they were not even bound to provide for the domestic expenses,
the care of providing for the house and the education of the children being
incumbent on the husband. Wives could make wills and sign deeds without the
consent of the husbands. If a wife died intestate, her property went to her
children or collaterals.
In fact a wife was not regarded in Hungary as a minor, her husband was
not her guardian, nor were there trustees
appointed for her property. "None of my countrywomen would ever have submitted to such a marriage settlement as is usual in England," said a Hungarian lady, well known for her genius and reputation. With the one exception of considering all unmarried women as minors, the Hungarian law is very much in advance of ours.
The laws in the United States are generally much the same as ours. As a
general rule married women cannot make a devise of real estate. In some of
the States there are more reasonable laws, and a married woman may make a
will and devise lands in the same manner as men. These States are Ohio,
Illinois, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In Ohio the laws are
remarkably liberal to women. The first section of the statute of wills in
Ohio declares that any person of full age and sound mind and memory may
make a will. By the statute of Ohio it is expressly provided that the will
of an unmarried woman shall not be revoked by her subsequent
marriage.
What changes we find in the American laws are improvements upon ours. Is
there not evidence in our English laws of old opinions related to women
which are passing away with the old state of things which engendered them?
In the early times, when women were obliged by the violent state of society
to be always under the guardianship of father, brother, or husband, these
laws might be necessary; but in our peaceful times, such guardianship is
proved to be superfluous by the fact of the secure, honourable, and
independent position of single women who are sufficiently protected by the
sanctuary of civilisation.
Since all the unmarried women in England are supported either by their
own exertions or by the exertions or bequests of their fathers and
relations, there is no reason why upon marriage they should be thrown upon
the pecuniary resources of their husbands, except in so far as the claims
of a third party--children--may lessen the wife's power of
earning money, at the same time that it increases her expenses. Of course a
woman may, and often does, by acting as housekeeper and manager of her
husband's concerns, earn a maintenance and a right to share in his
pro-
perty, independent of any children which may come of the marriage. But it is evident that daughters ought to have some sure provision--either a means of gaining their own bread, or property--as it is most undesirable that they should look upon marriage as a means of livelihood.
Fathers seldom feel inclined to trust their daughters' fortunes in
the power of a husband, and, in the appointment of trustees, partially
elude the law by a legal device. Also, the much abused Court of Chancery
tried to palliate the Common Law, and recognizes a separate interest
between husband and wife, and allows the wife alone to file a bill to
recover and protect her property, and trustees are not necessary if there
has been an agreement.
Why should not these legal devices be done away with, by the simple
abolition of a law which we have outgrown?
We do not say that these laws of property are the only unjust laws
concerning women to be found in the short summary which we have given, but
they form a simple, tangible, and not offensive point of attack.
THE END.
LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND
CHARING CROSS.