The Victoria Magazine, Vol. 7

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Excerpt from The Victoria Magazine, Vol. 7: May-October, 1866 The way being thus paved for the equalising of ranks, which already in the eighteenth century had triumphed in civil life, the law of primo geniture, the privilege of the male sex, the exclusion of daughters, were nothing but odious absurdities in our legislation, the Code wisely abolished these objectless privileges, and adopting the more humane spirit of the Roman laws, it henceforth recognised but one kind of patrimony, one sort of heir, one law of succession. Equality thus became solidly established in our Civil laws, which are surer guardians of this precious deposit than political constitutions, for they make equality penetrate into our social life, and put it under the most sacred protection, that of the domestic hearth. In England, the march of things was di¿'erent, legislation remained there impregnated with the aristocratic spirit, and women have suffered greatly from this direction of the laws. The head of the family, whether father or mother, had the right to dispose of the succession in so absolute a manner, that Coke doubted if the children had ever had a determinate share. All that the law does for the children and the wife is to give them the personal estate, if the deceased has made no other disposition of it, but the head of the family is the absolute master of his fortune, and the law sees him with pleasure concentrate his wealth on the head of a privi leged heir. Thus, in reality, the unrestricted power of making a will is only a means of buttressing an aristocracy, another point in which the English law bears resemblance to the Roman law, with which it has so much similitude. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.