political organizations. Until a few decades ago, the
attendance of women among the public at open trials was forbidden by
several German codes of criminal procedure. If a woman gives birth to an
illegitimate child, it has no claim to support from its father if its
mother accepted any presents from him during her pregnancy. If a woman
is divorced from her husband, she continues to carry his name as a
lasting memento, unless she marry again.

In Germany, hundreds of frequently contradictory laws are met with.
According to the bill for the new civil laws of Germany, the
administration of the wife's property falls to the husband, unless the
wife has secured her property to herself by special contract. This is a
reactionary attitude, long since discarded by many other countries. On
the other hand, the wife is allowed to retain what she has earned by her
own personal labor, and without assistance of her husband, or by the
independent conduct of a business enterprise.

In England, and down to 1870, the common law of the land gave to the
husband all the personal property of the wife. Only with regard to real
estate were her proprietary rights safeguarded; the husband,
nevertheless, had the right of administration and of use. At the bar of
law, the English woman was a zero: she could perform no legal act, not
even execute a valid testament; she was a veritable serf of her husband.
A crime committed by her in his presence, he was answerable for: she was
at all points a minor. If she injured any one, damage was assessed as if
done by a domestic animal: the husband was held. According to an address
delivered in 1888 by Bishop J. N. Wood in the chapel of Westminster, as
recently as a hundred years ago the wife was not allowed to eat at table
or to speak before she was spoken to: above the bed hung a stout whip,
that the husband was free to use when the wife displayed ill temper:
only her daughters were subject to her orders: her sons saw in her
merely a female servant. Since 1870 and 1882, the wife is not merely
secured in the sole possession of the property that she brings with her,
she is also the proprietor of all she earns, or receives by inheritance
or gift. These rights can be altered only by special contract between
the husband and wife. English legislation followed the example of the
United States.

Particularly backward is the civil law of France, of most of the Swiss
cantons, of Belgium, etc., in the matter of woman's c