Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, and As It Should Be: A Plea for ReformBesant, Annie
Philosophy
Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, and As It Should Be: A Plea for Reform
Besant, Annie
Marriage -- Great Britain; Marriage law -- Great Britain
If the parent assists his child, or the child his parent, if
the brother receives the brother, the master his servant, or the servant
his master, or even if the husband receives his wife, having any of them
committed a felony, the receiver becomes an accessory _ex post facto_.
But a _feme covert_ cannot become an accessory by the receipt and
concealment of her husband; for she is presumed to act under his
coercion, and therefore she is not bound, neither ought she, to discover
her lord" (Ibid., p. 38). The wife of a blind husband must not, however,
regard her coverture as in all cases a protection, for it has been held
that if stolen goods were in her possession, her husband's blindness
preventing him from knowing of them, her coverture did not avail to
shelter her.
Any advantage which married women may possess through the supposition
that they are acting under the coercion of their husbands ought to be
summarily taken away from them. It is not for the safety of society
that criminals should escape punishment simply because they happen to
be married women; a criminal husband becomes much more dangerous to the
community if he is to have an irresponsible fellow-conspirator beside
him; two people--although the law regards them as one--can often commit
a crime that a single person could not accomplish, and it is not even
impossible that an unscrupulous woman, desiring to get rid easily for
awhile of an unpleasant husband, might actually be the secret prompter
of an offence, in the commission of which she might share, but in the
punishment of which she would have no part. For the sake of wives, as
well as of husbands, this irresponsibility should be put an end to,
for if a husband is to be held accountable for his wife's misdeeds
and debts, it is impossible for the law to refuse him control over her
actions; freedom and responsibility must go hand in hand, and women who
obtain the rights of freedom must accept the duties of responsibility.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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