Girls, wives, or widows, they were under the guardianship of the father, husband, or nearest male relative. The father could freely dispose of his daughter’s hand, and her own inclinations seem to have been very little taken into consideration.[1446] According to ancient Russian laws, fathers had great power over the children;[1447] but Macieiowski thinks it improbable that a son could be sold as a slave.[1448] Baron von Haxthausen, who wrote before the Emancipation in 1861, says, “The patriarchal government, feelings, and organization are in full activity in the life, manners, and customs of the Great Russians. The same unlimited authority which the father exercises over all his children is possessed by the mother over her daughters.... The Russian addresses the same word to his real father, to the Starosta (a communal authority), to his proprietor, to the Emperor, and finally to God, _viz._, Father (‘Batushka’).”[1449] According to Sir Mackenzie Wallace, however, the head of the household was rather the administrator of a labour association than a house-father in the proper sense of the term. The house and nearly everything it contained were the joint-property of the family, and not even the head of it could sell or buy anything without the express or tacit consent of all the other grown-up men.[1450] In Poland, according to Nestor, a father used to select a bride for his son;[1451] and in Russia, previous to the Emancipation, it was a common custom for fathers to marry their young sons to full-grown women. According to Professor Bogišić, the power of the father is not so great among the South Slavonians as among the Russians.[1452] But Dr. Krauss asserts that a son is not permitted to make a proposal of marriage to a girl against the will of his parents; and, among the Croatians and Servians, it is quite exceptional for the young man himself to look about for his future wife.[1453] A daughter, of course, enjoys still less freedom of disposing of her own hand.[1454] * * * * * The paternal authority of the archaic type here considered formed only a transitional stage in the history of human institutions. It declined gradually, according as the religious basis on which it rested became more unstable. The introduction of a new religion with higher conceptions of human rights particularly contributed to its fall. Paying special attention to its influence on the laws of marriage, I shall endeavour to trace the main features of this highly important process, which released children from paternal despotism.