WOMAN UNDER THE ENGLISH LAW FROM THE LANDING OF THE SAXONS TO THE PRESENT TIME BY ARTHUR RACKHAM CLEVELAND " LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1896. All rights reserved. IN INTRODUCTION N the laws of every nation which has attained to such a degree of civilization as to have reduced its system of jurisprudence to writing, there are to be found certain enactments dealing especially with women, as distinguished from the general body of the people owing obedience to these laws. To this rule we believe there is no single exception, nor can we conceive any state of society composed of men and women, whose system of jurisprudence could be such, that the same laws would apply equally to the two sexes. As a proof of the universality of this rule, we have but to look at the three great systems of jurisprudence existing in the past, viz. the Hebraic, the Greek, and the Roman. In each of these there are numerous laws dealing with the relations of the sexes, and though these laws differ in many instances, both in |