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months his misdeeds were generally forgotten , and he was nearly as well receired as ever . Now , it Vivian had cheated at cards , or played with loaded dice , or acted dishonestly as a railroad director , he would have been cut—utterly and hopelessly cut ; but as it was , he having merely ill-used and defrauded the woman , he had sworn to cherish , it was not thought worth while to punish him for such a small offence against society as that . Does it not show a great want of chivalrous and generous feeling among gentlemen , that while they exclude from society any
one of their own order who , by his dishonourable behaviour , has defrauded one of themselves , they will yet continue to receive on friendly terms a man who has behaved dishonourably to a woman ? If a gentleman pledges his word to another gentleman , a , nd > does not redeem it , he is cast out of gentlemen ' s society ; but if a gentleman pledges his faith before God's altar to a lady , and notoriously breaks his oath , there are but few , very few gentlemen indeed ,, who will refuse to associate with him . The sentence of excommunication that is passed on persons whom
society determines to cut , is a very severe one ; but it is a useful and salutary punishment , and acts as a warning to others who are inclined to err in the same direction . If ladies were to determine that they would not admit within their houses men who had been notoriously guilty of breaking God ' s laws , or of having cruelly oppressed a woman , they would greatly raise the standard of raoraKty and confer an immense benefit upon their own sex . Many a man who is not withheld from crime by the fear of having to answer for it in the next world , would be withheld if he expected to meet with punishment in this . If a man
knew that if he behaved ill to his wife , he would be excluded thenceforth from the society of other ladies , as women very properly are when they do wrong ; if he knew that he should never again receive an invitation to a ball or evening party ; if he knew that from henceforth all his lady acquaintances would look coldly on him , and that he should be entirely reduced to the club for society , he would think twice before he did anything that would entail this punishment on him , and would treat his wife differently . Thus women might , if they chose , confer protection on each other . "
In the course of time the wife becomes a mother , and when her boy is about eight years old , his father stealthily takes him away . Hoping that the law w ould interfere and restore her child , she carries her grievance into the courfc of Common Pleas with the usual result—that the father ' s claim to the boy ' s guardianship is
confirmed : — " 'I am prepared to contend / replied Mr . Kennedy , that , where a father misconducts himself towards his children , the law will interfere and take them from his custody / The judge replied , — There are many cases in which the law has interfered to give a father the custody of his children , and in some cases those who administered the law have deeply regretted it ; but I know of no case in which a father has been deprived by a court of law of having their custody . ' "
The judgment here recorded was delivered in that court in the year 1852 , by a judge recently deceased . We are a very moral and a very just people ; if we were not so , we might perhaps be induced to borrow a leaf from the jurisprudence of our French neighbours . The rule with us is , that " a mother , as such , has no legal right to the custody of her children ; ' and our legislators , statesmen , and moralists , assert that to change this condition of the law is not only difficult , but impossible . But the example of Prance has clearly
proved that an alteration may bo beneficially effected : ¦—" According to French law , the children are always , in case of a separation . between husband and wife , given over to the parent—whether father or mother whose conduct has been the most respectable . If a man applies for a legal separation from his wife on account of her misconduct , and obtains it , the children are
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
months his misdeeds were generally forgotten , and he was nearly as well receired as ever . Now , it Vivian had cheated at cards , or played with loaded dice , or acted dishonestly as a railroad director , he would have been cut—utterly and hopelessly cut ; but as it was , he having merely ill-used and defrauded the woman , he had sworn to cherish , it was not thought worth while to punish him for such a small offence against society as that . Does it not show a great want of chivalrous and generous feeling among gentlemen , that while they exclude from society any
one of their own order who , by his dishonourable behaviour , has defrauded one of themselves , they will yet continue to receive on friendly terms a man who has behaved dishonourably to a woman ? If a gentleman pledges his word to another gentleman , a , nd > does not redeem it , he is cast out of gentlemen ' s society ; but if a gentleman pledges his faith before God's altar to a lady , and notoriously breaks his oath , there are but few , very few gentlemen indeed ,, who will refuse to associate with him . The sentence of excommunication that is passed on persons whom
society determines to cut , is a very severe one ; but it is a useful and salutary punishment , and acts as a warning to others who are inclined to err in the same direction . If ladies were to determine that they would not admit within their houses men who had been notoriously guilty of breaking God ' s laws , or of having cruelly oppressed a woman , they would greatly raise the standard of raoraKty and confer an immense benefit upon their own sex . Many a man who is not withheld from crime by the fear of having to answer for it in the next world , would be withheld if he expected to meet with punishment in this . If a man
knew that if he behaved ill to his wife , he would be excluded thenceforth from the society of other ladies , as women very properly are when they do wrong ; if he knew that he should never again receive an invitation to a ball or evening party ; if he knew that from henceforth all his lady acquaintances would look coldly on him , and that he should be entirely reduced to the club for society , he would think twice before he did anything that would entail this punishment on him , and would treat his wife differently . Thus women might , if they chose , confer protection on each other . "
In the course of time the wife becomes a mother , and when her boy is about eight years old , his father stealthily takes him away . Hoping that the law w ould interfere and restore her child , she carries her grievance into the courfc of Common Pleas with the usual result—that the father ' s claim to the boy ' s guardianship is
confirmed : — " 'I am prepared to contend / replied Mr . Kennedy , that , where a father misconducts himself towards his children , the law will interfere and take them from his custody / The judge replied , — There are many cases in which the law has interfered to give a father the custody of his children , and in some cases those who administered the law have deeply regretted it ; but I know of no case in which a father has been deprived by a court of law of having their custody . ' "
The judgment here recorded was delivered in that court in the year 1852 , by a judge recently deceased . We are a very moral and a very just people ; if we were not so , we might perhaps be induced to borrow a leaf from the jurisprudence of our French neighbours . The rule with us is , that " a mother , as such , has no legal right to the custody of her children ; ' and our legislators , statesmen , and moralists , assert that to change this condition of the law is not only difficult , but impossible . But the example of Prance has clearly
proved that an alteration may bo beneficially effected : ¦—" According to French law , the children are always , in case of a separation . between husband and wife , given over to the parent—whether father or mother whose conduct has been the most respectable . If a man applies for a legal separation from his wife on account of her misconduct , and obtains it , the children are