"Like all powers of appointment," he continued, "this power in the father to appoint by testament a guardian to his children is liable sometimes to be exercised in what might appear to be an arbitrary manner, and in disregard of the feelings of the mother. But the history of the statute does not show this to have been frequently the case in reality. Many times the act has a most beneficent operation. The principle of the statute, taking it all in all, appears to have been beneficial to the family relation, and to have furnished the means of securing the welfare of the children, which after all is the thing that the court has always to consider. If not so, it could hardly have been retained in force in the English and American statute law to the present day." Concluding, he said: "In 1873 this subject was fully discussed before the Court of Queen's Bench. It was held that a person who had been duly appointed under Charles II, Chap. 24, Sec. 8, by the will of the father to be guardian of his child, stands in _loco parentis_, and having, therefore, a legal right to the custody of the infant, may in order to obtain possession of such ward, claim a writ of _habeas corpus_ which a common law court has no discretion to refuse, if the applicant be a fit person and the child too young to choose for itself. "The court, therefore, gives the custody of the child to the guardian under the will, and counsel may draw a decree in accordance with the decision of the court." For a full half minute there was silence in the court-room. Then, before Judge Kirtley could speak or put out a hand to stop her, Margaret De Jarnette stood up, white as the dead. "The decision may be according to the law," she said in a low tense voice--"the law made by men for men. But it will not stand. Mark that!" her head was thrown back now and her eyes blazed. "For it is against Nature's law and that is God's very own. This child is mine! I bore him--through pain of body and anguish of soul. Does that give me no claim upon him?" She stretched out her hands in an unconscious gesture of appeal. A silence like that of the grave was over the room. Men and women bent forward and held their breath in their eagerness to hear. The Judge did not stop her. The Probate Court is very patient with women.