the worst evils of the old system have been remedied,[349] the protection order has been of little avail. Accordingly, a new measure of relief was adopted. The act of 1886,[350] in case of desertion, provides that any two justices in petty sessions or any stipendiary magistrate may make a "maintenance order" when they "are satisfied that the husband, being able wholly or in part to maintain his wife and family has wilfully refused and neglected to do so." The maintenance order requires the husband to "pay to the wife such weekly sum, not exceeding two pounds, as the justices or magistrate may consider to be in accordance with his means and with any means the wife may have for her support and the support of her family;" and the payment of the sum so ordered may be enforced by distress or by imprisonment if necessary.[351] Unlike the protection order, the order for maintenance is not expressly declared to be equivalent to a judicial separation; so it is inferred that a husband may "at any moment terminate the desertion," and require to be taken back by the wife who will "be in default" for refusal.[352] [Footnote 345: Application may be made to a police or petty sessional court and to the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes or its successor, the Probate and Divorce Division. _Cf._ 20 and 21 Vict., c. 85, sec. 21: _Statutes at Large_, XCVII, 535, 536; also GEARY, _op. cit._, 360 ff., 425 ff.; HARRISON, _op. cit._, 176, 177; GLASSON, _Le mariage civil et le divorce_, 323: ERNST, _Marriage and Divorce_, 53.] [Footnote 346: 20 and 21 Vict., c. 85, sec. 21: _Statutes at Large,_ XCVII, 536.] [Footnote 347: For a good summary of the old law as to property rights of married women see GLASSON, _Hist. du droit_, II, 284; IV, 157-59; V, 103 ff.; VI, 162; GEARY, _op. cit._, 184 ff.; and especially SWINDEREN, "Ueber das Güterrecht der Ehefrau in England," _ZVR._, V, 275 ff.] [Footnote 348: GEARY, _op. cit._, 363, 364.] [Footnote 349: On these and other statutes giving the married woman control of her property see SWINDEREN, _op. cit._, 278 ff.; GLASSON, _op. cit._, VI, 193 ff.; and MONTMORENCY'S valuable article, "The Changing Status of a Married Woman," _Law Quart. Review_, XIII, 192 ff.] [Footnote 350: 49 and 50 Vict., c. 52. On the "maintenance order" see GEARY, _op. cit._, 363, 368-70; HARRISON, _op. cit._, 178, 179.] [Footnote 351: It is to be enforced as under an order of affiliation; but that is by distress, or, in default of distress, by imprisonment: GEARY, _op. cit._, 366, 369, 415.] [Footnote 352: _Ibid._, 370.]