[Footnote 190: From a Law of Edmund, which is in every sense of the word a most singular specimen of legislation, the translator makes the following extract:—_Si eam_ (the wife) _ex terra illa ducere velit in alterius Thani regionem, tunc sponsio ipsius sit quam Amici paciscantur, ut Maritus ejus nullam illi injuriam inferat, et si illa delictum commiserit, ut possint esse propinquiores emendationi, si illa non habeat unde compenset._ (LL. Edm. Ed. Wilkins.) This was certainly a more polite mode of proceeding than Canute allowed. Under his Law, the wife, if guilty of the offence in the lifetime of her Husband, became infamous, forfeited every thing she possessed to her Husband, and lost both her nose and ears. (LL. Canuti—Ibid.)] [Footnote 191: _Parentelam_, (vide Spelm. Gloss. ad voc. _parentes_.) “Parentage and sibness of blude (within degrees defended and forbidden,”) (Reg. Majest. L. 2. c. 16.) Divorce, generally, is a bar to Dower under the Norman code. (Le Grand Custum. de Norm. c. 102.)] [Footnote 192: Upon this Rule of Law, Lord Littleton observes, “as the Canonical prohibitions extended so far, that divorces frequently happened, after a cohabitation of many years in a state of wedlock supposed lawful, there was much humanity and equity in this Law,” especially as his Lordship had just observed “such a separation supposed a nullity in the marriage, and the children must in strictness have been bastardised by it,” had it not thus have been tempered and relaxed. (3 Litt. Hist. Hen. 2. p. 126.) A similar Law forms part of the Modern French code, though clearly the result of different principles—“Dissolution of marriage by Divorce, allowed at Law, shall not deprive the children born of the marriage of any of the advantages which were assured to them by the Laws, or by the marriage contracts of their Father and Mother.” (Code Napoleon, s. 304.)] [Footnote 193: According to the Norman Code, if the Husband, at the time of the marriage, had no Fee, but his father or Grandfather had been present and consented to the marriage, the wife might be endowed out of the Land of the Father or Grandfather, provided there were no other Heirs: if, however, such Father or Grandfather had other Heirs, then, she was to be endowed out of the portion descending to her Husband. But, if the Father or Grandfather did not consent to the marriage, she was entitled to no Dower out of their Lands. (Le Grand Cust. de Normand. c. 102.)] [Footnote 194: This is put as a question in the printed text, although the Cottonian and Dr. Milles’s MSS. assert it absolutely, that the wife cannot claim any more in Dower than that of which she has been so endowed. That the printed text is correct seems probable: for we can scarcely suppose the doctrine in question was settled when that contained in the next following passage was unsettled.]