| OCR Text |
Show Personal Right of Property. A bill giving married women the right to the control of their own property and earnings has passed to its second reading in the British parliament, and seems likely to become a law. In the course of the debate, one member said that at present a woman in Great Britain forfeited by marrying all that she possessed, all that she might earn through her own industry. All passed to the husband. It was an honorable state, no doubt, on which the woman entered through marriage ; but, as respected her personal property, it had the same effect as a conviction for felony. fel-ony. In the case of the rich, the woman was piotected through settlements, which, though ignored by courts of law, were enforced by courts of equity. But that was a protection which could scarcely be obtained ob-tained by women with small fortunes, and was wholly inapplicable to the case of married women earning wages. By the last census there were in the country coun-try 800,000 of such women. Another member said that he never went to his manufactory without having inquiries in-quiries addressed to him as to when this bill would pass. He knew of scores of cases in which the earnings of poor women were taken out of their hands by their husbands on Saturday evenings, and spent in drink. J'he Solicitor-General aLo supported the bill, as demanded by every consideration con-sideration of justice and good policy. |
