Page:The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives. Bodleian copy.pdf/27

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not to continue any longer than our Children remain in the Nurſery, but it ſhould decline and extinguiſh, as we ſee it does in other Creatures, when it can be of no further Service to the Offſpring.

If we are accidentally diſqualified by a fooliſh trifling Education, where does that Imputation revert, but upon thoſe Perſons Under whoſe Direction and Authority we are ſo educated?

If a ſecond Marriage expoſes Children by a Former, to the Oppreſſion of a latter Huſband, and Utterly diſables the Mother to reſcue them from it; whence does that Inability ariſe, but from thoſe Laws which give the Huſband ſo exorbitant a Power over the Wife, that ſhe cannot exert herſelf in thoſe Duties which God has commanded her to do, unleſs it be at the Will and Pleaſure of her Huſband?

The Sum of this Argument is this,

That we are not naturally diſqualified to educate our Children, for God gives no natural Inſtict in Vain: Not accidentally diſqualified, unleſs by the Fault of the Other Sex, in the Education they give us, and the Laws they make for us.

I confeſs that by the preſent Laws, we may be deemed diſqualified to be intruſted with the Education of our Children, inaſ-

much