Old Map Year Laws.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 218, 15 September 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

Old Map Year Laws.

It !s commonly supposed that Leap year is an invention'"of the playful mind,; and that it.never had a more serious existence than il. now-hap;, in the acts of these sportive young people who give Leap Year parties to which the ladies .escort the gentlemen, and who laugh over the idea of a lady asking a gentleman1 to become her! husband. But there was a time when- Leap.Year was aseriousaffair; when men were compelled by law to; recognise seriously the matrimonial "propositions of "women. 'For example, there was an old' Saxon code one seotion of which ran thus, * Albeit, as often as Leape Yearre dothe btiOure, the woman holdeth prerogative over the menne in matters or courtships^ love* arid' matters matrimonie; so that, when the lady propqseth, it shall not be lavful for the man to Say • berf nae, but shall entertain her proppsaH jn ail good-curtesie.' [Ampng the.old Sootch statutes still preserved is tplbe found one, bearing^e date of 1228, whioh; contains tJiJB bußiness-Hke ; section : ' It is statut and prda|nt that durin the reine of her maist blqswt. majestic ilk forth year, known as L^pip Year, ilk-maiden iiadye of baith high and low esteife: shall have liberty to bespeak ye man she likes ; albyifci if be refuses to take her to be mt, be shall be mulcted in $ie ; IW of. oneipou»d (£1) o? less, as his estait oiay be, except and aiwisif he can 'make it,appear that he is betrothed to one woman; and then heshali be'free;" Wefind nowhere any statute intimating that a woman can be held for breach of promise, nor is there anything in the law to prevent her going up and down all Scotland awd proposing to every man she meets till she has either found one who* will"accept her proposition, ■:,pr. h,as .h^d; every unengaged bachelor in the realm fined for refusing her. -And yet, there are people who say women, through all history, have -been crushed down jand=;enslaved and abused,, and that never before were they- treated, so -I well, sas they are,to-day.