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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 205
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ancient Relation Zaw To ; Modern Its Con...
followed out . It is , however , in tliis chapter , and in this chapter onlthat we find one or two remarks froni whichif we have
an rightl y admirable , y understood exposition them , of we the should history be or disposed rather to of dissent the , philosop . After hy
of the Roman Patria Potestas , or Authoritv , of the Head of the Family , and after tracing it through such modifications as it
underwent through the whole duration of Roman society , Mr . Maine says " The : — furthest point reached was in the Eastunder Justinianwho enacted
that unless the acquisitions of the child were derived , from the , parent ' s own their propert produce y , the parent for the ' s period rights of over his them life . should Even this not , the extend utmost beyond relaxation enjoying of
the institution Roman of P the atria modern Potestas world , left . " it — far P . am 143 p . ler and severer than any analogous We fear that there are some women who would scarcely be able
to acquiesce in this last statement , since the existing law of England still permits a husband to dispose of his wife ' s earnings by will .
Mr . Maine is of opinion that most of the disabilities of married women in regard to property in modern legal systems may be traced
to the influence of the Canon Law , and that by " keeping alive and consolidating" them /' the expositors of the Canon Law have
, deeply injured civilization . "—P . 158 . We are surprised therefore to find that he thinks that
to " restor _No society to arried which preserves the any tincture onal liberty of Christian conferred institu on them tion is b lik ely
on middle quite R e a oman different m , basis but women the from proprietar their pers personal y disabilities incapacities of married . " —P . females 158 . stand y
It appears to us that it was not liberty , but the use made of it , which was inconsistent with Christianityand that Christianity itself
is far more powerful in such matters to , prevent a bad use of freedom than the strictest laws are to prevent an escape from their own
stringency . A glance at the moral condition of comparatively free and Christian countriescontrasted with that of enslaved or
Maho-, medan ones , will bear out our assertion as a matter of fact . Moreover we kf , are at a loss to conceive where any Christian sanction can
be found , for the subjection of women , married or unmarried , in or in propertexcept such sanction as exists for negro and
person all other slavery . But y , the reasons which induce modern society to prefer the general tendency of Christianity to specific passages which
are inconsistent with it , and are capable , for this and for other reasonsof being lained awayapply as much to the one case as
to the , other . The exp liberality of , Mr . Maine ' s opinions as regards women ' s property , compared with the reserves he seems disposed to
make as to their personal freedom , may perhaps be attributed to the fact that asa lawyer he has had practical evidence of the
incon-. veniences of our present system , in the one respect , but as a man can have no experience of it in the other .
It must not however be supposed that Mr . Maine's book is
imiavorable to an extension of the present legal rights of women .
Notices Of Books. 205
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 205
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1861, page 205, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051861/page/61/
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