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Paper read at Birmingham. Social Science Meeting: Review of the arguments.In the month of September, 1868, the Social Science Congress took place at Birmingham; and I then read a paper in which the subject was reviewed. It was then shown that the rule of law to be altered was that of the Common Law, which, speaking broadly, takes all property from the wife and gives it to the husband; that this rule had in effect been abrogated by the Court of Chancery in many cases affecting those rich enough to enjoy its protection, and that rich people were also in the universal habit of excluding its operation by the expensive machinery of private contract and the interposition of trustees. The law, therefore, is divided against itself, and one part of it must be wrong; either that part which has been established in Chancery and which affects rich people, or that rule of the Common Law which affects poor people. And it is the latter rule to which mischief is traced; against the former no charge is brought. Moreover, it is the latter rule which has prevailed in rude and barbarous societies, and has been encroached on as civilisation has advanced.[1]
The objections put forward were then dealt with, most of them being of a very flimsy character and admitting of obvious specific answers. The most important was that which is founded on the principle that the husband must, in case of dissension, determine the general course of family affairs, e.g., the common residence and perhaps the common occupations. To this it was answered, that the wife ought to have due weight in the family councils; that there are many domestic matters in which women are better judges than men; that there are many women who are wiser and stronger than their husbands; and that it is a monstrous thing to assume that the husband must always be right, and therefore to give him in all cases the power of stopping the supplies, and so starving into submission the wife who is not convinced by his arguments nor bent by the weight of his authority. Finally it was urged, that over and above the specific answer to each objection, there was one general and conclusive answer to all, i.e., the
- ↑ This idea was worked out with great learning and force by Mr. Jessel in his speech in the House of Commons. His belief is, that the marital rights conferred by the Common Law are simply remnants of the old system of slavery, under which the women of the family were slaves to its head. Nor is it easy for anybody who will fairly weigh his proofs, to deny their cogency.
