MARRIED WOMEN AND THE LAW.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17451, 11 May 1922, Page 11

MARRIED WOMEN AND THE LAW.

DOCTRINE OF COERCION.

WISDOM OP OTJB ANCESTORS.

| (.FKOJt OL'il OWN COEBESPOSWEKX.) ! LONDON, March 2-1. | In the judgment given by Mr Justice j Darling in the Peel case the Judge hold that the "melancholy doctrine" that a wife could be coerced by her husband into the commission of a crime was still the law of the land whenever husband and wife were jointly indicted of a crime. He maintained that the doctrine was founded on the assumption that a wife would not dare to contradict her husbandThe question'of the "coercion" of wives was raised in the House of Lords by Lord Ullswater, who called j for action in respect to a revision of j tiio law. Ho asked whether the Lord ; Chancellor would introduce a Bill to | abolish that doctrine, which appeared' Ito date from the reigns of King j Canute and King Ina, and bring the law into closer accord with the well-. I known facts of present-day matrimonial life. "What Mr Justice Darling described as a melancholy doctrine seemed to him rather a subject for mirth. He recalled that Mr Bumble, when told by the magistrate that in tho eye 9. of tho law ho was more guilty than his wife, for the law supposed that his wife acted under his direction, replied that "if the law supposed that the law is a hass," and added that the lawmust be a bachelor, and he wished that the eye of the law might be opened by experience. Lora Buckmaster said it was his firm conviction that tho bulk of the women to-day acted under the direction of their husbands, and thia was the more assuredly true among the poorer classes. He was not prepared to destroy what had been established by the wisdom of our ancestors, who knew as much about men and women as we did to-day. "Women had got the vote, but women were just the same aa they were before. Not Too Slsiple. The Lord ChanceUor held that the matter was not so simple as Lord Ullswater supposed. Lord Buckmaster had stated that husbands did control their wives.- Eveiy man had his own experience in these matters, and he was not bold enough to make any such claim. (Laughter). But in the humbler ranks of society it was absolutely true that there waa a very great degree of that amount of control which our ancestors had in their minds when the/ surrounded women with this protection. He was not prepared without further reflection to com. Mit himself definitely on this matter, but after consultation with the Attor-ney-General; he proposed to Bet up a small but highly expert committee to make a report to him on tho subject as a whole. "Without suoh a report 'hi was not prepared to jrecommena or carry out legislation. The Marguess of Aberdeen recalled that a former Chancellor of Scotland," the first Earl_ of Aberdeen, resigned Office rather than carry out an Act which proposed to make husbands responsible for wives' non-attendance at dhuroh. (Laughter). Doctrines of Servitude. Writing on this subject in . "The Times," Lady Frances Balfour dent of the National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland) calls attention to tho fact that this is not the only such survival out of keeping With tho more enlightened attitude now held towards married women; /The law of coverture, although certain of ita worst consequences, were swept away by the Married Women's Property Acts, and /by the decision of the Hon&e of Lords in> the Jackson case,, has never been -abolished in its entirety. That doctrine is that a man and his'wife ana one person, and that .the husband is that person. The wife's | 'legal existence i» incorporated and | consolidated into; that of heri husband:' It is no more than 30 years since the Jackson case definitely,; nogatived a claim that a husband had the right to imprison .his .wife, which was based on this doctrine*. At the/flame time, the wife's position as her husband' 9 property is still in practice, aa, for example, 1 "when she is not allowed to decide for herself, like other adults, whether or not sh® 6hall submit to . a surgical, operation. Her husband, must ,first give his consent. ; "We. submit, that these doctrines, which belong to on age of servitude and serfdom, should be explicitly- anjiulled by legislation, so that marriage may become, an e^uallv.., responsible partnership, which -is necessary to the building up of the highest kind of family life." ~■ ■ -