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    AS AFFECTED BY THE LAW. 125

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    • 4 Ik Directing Attention To Those Cond...

    accordance with . her own judgment and inclination . She may engage in any business which she is competent to conduct , and , as

    far as her physical strength permits , in any manufacture or occupation which is open to men . She is not legally disqualified from _,

    entering the professions of Law and Medicine , though in this _i country the customs and prejudices of society do in effect exclude

    her from them . The only points on which , in the eye of the law , she is regarded as possessing inferior privileges to man , are , her . ;

    inability to enter the Church as a profession , to hold office ( witlx some trifling exceptions ) under Government , and , although possessed

    of the requisite property qualifications , to vote in elections for Members of Parliament . .

    These laws are generally recognized as just in principle , and tending to promote the interests of those affected by them . That

    the independent and uncontrolled possession and disposal of person _^ and property is a power that may be beneficially exercised by

    women , is evidenced by the fact that the large majority of the adult unmarried women of this country do maintain themselves and

    those dependent on them , in comfort and respectability , by their own exertions .

    It is when we turn to the consideration of the legal restrictions " and disabilities imposed upon married women , that we _ara

    impressed by the need of correction in many of the laws relating tc _^ them .

    These disabilities are threefold , —relating to their person , their property and their children .

    A woman is regarded as making in marriage an absolute and ! unconditional gift and surrender of her person and property inta

    the hands of her husband . She relinquishes all control over her own personbeing by law considered as a mere chattel and

    appendage of , her husband , who can compel her presence with him at all times , and enforce his right , if resisted , by a writ of habeas

    corpus . He may , with impunity , exercise towards her tyrannical conduct , such as denying her intercourse with her friends and

    family , restricting her from accustomed luxuries , using _insulting language & cthough in cases of gross and personal abuse , or

    under circumstances , , of peculiar and notorious aggravation , she may appeal for protection to the courts of law . :

    Since , by marriage , the law deprives a woman of all property , or interest in propertytransferring the same to her husband , and

    regards her as , until , his death , incapable of holding possessions of any nature whatever , she is dependent on him for the supply of the

    most trivial or indispensable necessaries of life . \ She cannot retain as her own , separate possessions and gifts

    conveyed to her by others , except as they are vested in the hands of trusteesneither can she appropriate to her own useor that of her

    children , , money earned by herself , unless by permission , of her

    husband _.

    As Affected By The Law. 125

    AS _AFFECTED BY THE LAW . 125

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1862, page 125, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101862/page/53/