| Show RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN A libent decision by the english court of appeals has caused surprise in legal circles it is received with delight by the fair sex but sohn john bull who has for centuries considered it mans righetto right to dominate and do about as he be pleased with his wife is in a state ot of alarmed Indignation the london lawyers too are aroused and look upon the ruling as a startling innovation in this country it is viewed as both sound and sensible the court holds that a husband has not the tight either to imprison his wife or compel her to cohabit with him against her will this would set seim m to be a very plain proposition to an american America nj and one that would need very little argument in its support but the old common law of england made the wife so subordinate husband that she had very small personal rights and her identity was almost lost in that unity which was we the common iiron law theory of wedlock so eminent an ant authority hority as lord mansfield held judicially that A husband has power and dominion over his wife and mi may kee keep p her by force within the bounds of duty and DE NIEVeR t her but not in a violent manam manner no wonder that under such views of male marital authority brutal men have beaten their wives in the old world and have escaped legal penalties for their violence but this new ru ruling lang will wil 1 inaugurate augu rate a new order of things for suffering eran wives the law tames rega edff it as a charter of personal lib liberty arty of married women it is certai certainty in line with movements bior for the redemption and ele elevation vailon of woman and with the sentiment of modern times in relation to the sex s but the atio question n as to its strict legality is open to discussion that it is rl right gat no one ought to dispute that it to is law many fill be found to d deny eny the london lath journal pays perhaps erha I 1 p a never inthe in the history of judicial decisions has authority been so boldly overruled and disregarded and A n the affnan avows that t for 0 ta the arai time in english history a wife is at liberty immediately after going through the ceremony of marriage in church to desert her husband and without excuse condemn him hida to a life of celi celibacy 10 the te ruling is regarded as so revolutionary as t to require legislation to restore the of husbands and the boj alord chancellor had to announce in the house of lords so as to answer inquiries on this matter that it was J not the intention of the government to introduce a bill giving men power to imprison their wives we should think not whatever authority might have been derived from the old common law an attempt to establish it by statute in this extreme form would arouse the indignation and also the ridicule of the whole civi civilized lizel world it is time that the barbarism and slavery embodied in the common law relating to the status of married women were abolished both in practice and in theory and few afew a more such rulf figs as that of the court of appeals bepple dented by some statutory provisions establishing the rights and liberties of woman would be an improvement upon the english system and not be out of place in some parts of these free united states |
