as theſe ſtolen marriages, under the age of ſixteen, were uſually upon mercenary views, this act, beſides puniſhing the ſeducer, wiſely removed the temptation. But this latter part of the act is now rendered almoſt uſeleſs, by proviſions of a very different kind, which make the marriage totally void[1], in the ſtatute 26 Geo. II. c. 33.
III. A third offence, againſt the female part alſo of his majeſty's ſubjects, but attended with greater aggravations than that of forcible marriage, is the crime of rape, raptus mulierum, or the carnal knowlege of a woman forcibly and againſt her will. This, by the Jewiſh law[2], was puniſhed with death, in caſe the damſel was betrothed to another man; and, in caſe ſhe was not betrothed, then a heavy fine of fifty ſhekels was to be paid to the damſel's father, and ſhe was to be the wife of the raviſher all the days of his life; without that power of divorce, which was in general permitted by the moſaic law.
The civil law[3] puniſhes the crime of raviſhment with death and confiſcation of goods: under which it includes both the offence of forcible abduction, or taking away a woman from her friends, of which we laſt ſpoke; and alſo the preſent offence of forcibly dishonouring them; either of which, without the other, is in that law ſufficient to conſtitute a capital crime. Alſo the ſtealing away a woman from her parents or guardians, and debauching her, is equally penal by the emperor's edict, whether ſhe conſent or is forced: “ſive volentibus, ſive nolentibus mulieribus, tale facinus fuerit perpetratum.” And this, in order to take away from women every opportunity of offending in this way; whom the Roman laws ſuppoſe never to go aſtray, without the ſeduction and arts of the other ſex: and therefore, by reſtraining and making ſo highly penal the ſelicitations of the men, they meant to ſecure effectually the honour of the women.
