ir to be switched on the French
track. The provisions in the bill for a civil code for the German Empire
contain maxims on the legal status of illegitimate children, strongly in
contrast with the humane law still in force.

According to the bill, a dishonored girl--even if blameless, or seduced
with the promise of subsequent marriage, or induced to consent to
coition through some criminal act--has no claim against the seducer
except as indemnity for the costs of delivery, and for support during
the first six weeks after the birth of the child, and then only within
the bounds of what is strictly necessary. Only in some of the cases of
the worst crimes against morality, can a slight money indemnity be
granted to the seduced girl, at the discretion of the court, and without
the necessity of proving actual damages. The illegitimate child has no
claim upon the seducer of his mother, except for the merest necessaries
of life, and then only until its fourteenth year. All claims of the
child on its father are, however, barred if, within pregnancy, any other
man cohabit with its mother. The plaintiff child has, moreover, to prove
that its mother has not accepted the embraces of any other man.

Menger, the expositions in whose treatise[84] we here follow, justly
raises against the bill the serious charge that it only accrues to the
advantage of the well-to-do, immoral men, seducers of ignorant girls,
often girls who sin through poverty, but leaves these fallen girls,
together with their wholly guiltless children, entirely unprotected,
aye, pushes them only deeper into misery and crime. Menger cites, in
this connection, the provisions of the Prussian law. According thereto,
an unmarried woman or widow of good character, who is made pregnant, is
to be indemnified by the man according to his means. The indemnity
shall, however, not exceed one-fourth of his property. An illegitimate
child has a claim upon its father for support and education, regardless
of whether his mother is a person of good character: the expenditure,
however, shall be no higher than the education of a legitimate child
would cost to people of the peasant or of ordinary citizen walks of
life. If the illicit intercourse occurred under promise of future
marriage, then, according to the further provisions of Prussian law, the
Judge is duly to award the woman, pronounced innocent and a wife, the
name, standing and rank of the man, together with all the rights of a
di