A Collection of Chirurgical TractsBeckett, William
Science
A Collection of Chirurgical Tracts
Beckett, William
Surgery
We must have Recourse then to a Fine, or Corporal Punishment, or
perhaps both. If it is a Fine, it must be one of these three sorts;
either a certain determinate Sum for every Offence, or, to make it
fall more equally, such a certain Portion of a Man’s whole Substance,
or else it must be such a Sum as the Jury shall think sufficient to
repair the Woman’s Damages. The first is impracticable because of its
Inequality, with regard to Mens different Fortunes. The second would
punish none but Men of Fortune. And the third, in many Cases, would
be impossible; for Women are often ruin’d by such as have it not in
their power to make them amends. But granting that a Fine could be
so happily contriv’d as to affect all Men equally in their several
Stations of Life; and let us suppose this Fine considerable enough, for
so it must be, to deter any moderate-spirited Man: yet still we lie
under a manifest Dilemma as to the Point of Proof; for if the Proof
is to depend upon the Evidence of Eye-Witnesses, none but Fools will
be convicted; and let a Man be ever so indiscreet, he that swears to
_rem in re_ must have good Eyes, and be a good Swearer withal. If, on
the other hand, a Man is to be convicted upon the sole Evidence of the
Woman, we run into greater Inconveniences: for either a Woman is to
be recompenced for the Injury she has received, or not; if not, there
is no modest Woman of common Sense, but will chuse much rather to
conceal her Weakness, than expose it in publick Court so much to her
own Prejudice; and this too upon the sole Motive of doing Prejudice to
a Man, for whom, in all Probability, she still retains an Affection: So
that no Man would be accus’d but by such sort of Women as the Law can
never intend to favour or countenance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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