By the protection and maintenance orders a deserted wife is secured in the enjoyment of her own property or is given a just share in her delinquent partner's goods. In the meantime, a statute of 1878 attempts to shield her from a husband's brutality through the so-called "separation order."[353] The court is authorized in case of "aggravated assault," if "satisfied that the future safety of the wife is in peril," to order that she shall no longer be bound to live with her husband; that he shall render to her such weekly alimony[354] as may seem just; and to place the children in her custody.[355] This order for "magisterial separation," as it is called, has the "effect in all respects of a decree of judicial separation on the ground of cruelty." Like the protection, and probably also the maintenance, order, it does not preclude the wife's right, when she sees fit, to apply for a judicial separation or even for a dissolution of marriage.[356] [Footnote 353: 41 Vict., c. 19. On the separation order see GEARY, _op. cit._, 364 ff., 424, 425; HARRISON, _op. cit._, 177, 178.] [Footnote 354: The weekly amount and the manner of enforcing payment are expressed in exactly the same terms as later adopted in the act of 1886 for the maintenance order.] [Footnote 355: This order, like that for maintenance, may be discharged or varied on proof of the wife's adultery; and the weekly sum may be varied in amount with an alteration in the amount of the wife's or husband's means: GEARY, _op. cit._, 366, 367, 369, 370.] [Footnote 356: "If the husband goes out of the jurisdiction and leaves no tangible goods that are physically seizable, the wife is without remedy, however large be the husband's property in stocks and shares, etc., or by way of interest under a settlement." She may then apply for a judicial separation or a dissolution of marriage, when "she will obtain alimony in the usual way; and this will be indeed her only effectual course if the husband absconds."--GEARY, _op. cit._, 367. Compare Gillet _v._ Gillet (1889), 14 P. D., 158.] PART III MATRIMONIAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER XII OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES