The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
But if no such power had been reserved, and no such settlement existed,
yet, if the husband dies, leaving his conforming wife without a filed
provision by some settlement on his real estate, his wife may apply to
Chancery, where she shall be allotted a portion from his leases, and
other personal estate, not exceeding one third of his whole clear
substance. The laws in this instance, as well as in the former, have
presumed that the husband has omitted to make all the provision which he
might have done, for no other reason than that of her religion. If,
therefore, she chooses to balance any domestic misdemeanors to her
husband by the public merit of conformity to the Protestant religion,
the law will suffer no plea of such misdemeanors to be urged on the
husband's part, nor proof of that kind to be entered into. She acquires
a provision totally independent of his favor, and deprives him of that
source of domestic authority which the Common Law had left to him, that
of rewarding or punishing, by a voluntary distribution of his effects,
what in his opinion was the good or ill behavior of his wife.
Thus the laws stand with regard to the property already acquired, to its
mode of descent, and to family powers. Now as to the new acquisition of
real property, and both to the acquisition and security of personal, the
law stands thus:--
All persons of that persuasion are disabled from taking or purchasing,
directly or by a trust, any lands, any mortgage upon land, any rents or
profits from land, any lease, interest, or term of any land, any
annuity for life or lives or years, or any estate whatsoever, chargeable
upon, or which may in any manner affect, any lands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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