Sarah Chapone

“ From hence I must take the Liberty to assert, that this Exemption of a Wife from Punishment, upon Consideration that she obeys her Husband, never was designed as a Privilege to Wives, and that it never can be such in its own Nature, but is a Snare and Temptation to them, to comply with the Command of an Husband be the Instance ever so sinful, and to stand more in awe of a temporary Resentment from him, than of the eternal Resentment of Omnipotence itself. ”

“ If then it is agreeable to Justice, Mercy and Wisdom, it is established upon such Foundations that it is our true Interest that our Obligations to obey our Husbands should remain, till the Fashion of the World passeth away; then will be accomplished our most blooming Hopes and animating Expectations, the Laws of Equality will then for ever be set Right, and, she that humbleth herself, shall be exalted! ”

“ If a second Marriage exposes Children by a Former, to the Oppression of a latter Husband, and Utterly disables the Mother to rescue them from it; whence does that Inability arise, but from those Laws which give the Husband so exorbitant a Power over the Wife, that she cannot exert herself in those Duties which God has commanded her to do, unless it be at the Will and Pleasure of her Husband? ”

“ As Marriage is the very Basis, Foundation, and Cement of Society, an Institution of God, and productive of the greatest Blessings in human Life, 'tis highly reasonable to guard it with such Laws, that those who turn it into a Plague and a Curse, might receive due Punishment for such enormous Transgressions!
If there are any Laws which empower a Woman to ruin or oppress her Husband, you have the Power in your own Hands ”

“ Our King, his happiest and greatest Vice—gerent upon Earth, lays no Claim to the Power of Oppression: and it is no more to the Diminution of his Honour, than it is to the Restraint of his Actions, that our Laws guard us from suffering by his Authority. ”

“ Can any one suppose that a young Creature thus disciplined, should ever take it into her Head, that her truest Happiness, as well as greatest Honour, should arise from the Service of God, and free Exertion of her own Soul? ”

“ A young Lady possest of a considerable Fortune in Land and Money, married a Gentleman, in whom she had such full Trust and Confidence, that she made no Reserve to herself, but flung her whole Fortune with her Person entirely into his Power. As he had no Fortune of his own, it was a fine thing to him to be master of an Estate; he launched out into the most extravagant Expences, but soon finding some Frugality necessary, he thought fit to confine his Wife in her Country House, with the bare Allowance of the necessary Supports of Life, and one Servant to attend her, who was also her Jailer. ”

“ Our Laws decree the more dreadful Death to the guilty Wife, and pronounce a milder Sentence upon the guilty Husband; yet I shall leave it with the Casuists to decide, whether the Breach of Trust does not as much aggravate the Sin of Murder in the Husband, as the Breach of Submission aggravates the same Sin, in the Wife. But whether I am Right in my Sentiments or not, let any Man with the least Christian Charity, Generosity, or common Humanity, consider himself as the Father, Brother or Friend of any of the unfortunate Wives before mentioned ”

“ I am persuaded there are many Wives in England, who by the Favour of their Husbands, are still in a State of Existence: And am also sensible, that some Wives have so little Apprehension of this Law of Annihilation, that they are in Fact the freer Agents of the two. But at Present I am not enquiring into Facts, I am reporting what I take to be Law, in Order to have the Hardships of it known at least, that if they can't be amended, they may be avoided, by making Women more cautious, how they deliver themselves into the Hands of a Man, lest be bring them to nothing. ”

“ And to us, who lie under the unhappy Byass of a Nature depraved by original Sin, and the Dominion of so many vagrant Affections, which continually cloud the Understanding and stir up the Will to rebel, positive Commands were absolutely necesssary, even to put us in a Condition of perceiving and practising moral Virtues, by bending and subduing the Will, rectifying and weakening the Affections and Appetites, that they might be left able to pervert, and impose upon the Understanding. ”

“ To divest a Man of all Property, and then exempt him from a Jail in Consequence of his Debts, is just such a Privilege in his Civil Capacity, as it would be in his Natural one, to divest him of all Pleasure, and in Return to decree that he should feel no Pain. As such Exemption from Pleasure and Pain would, in Effect, strike him out of Being as a Man, so Inch divesting him of all Property, with such Exemption from Payment of Debts, is, in Effect, to cut him off from being a Member of Civil Society. ”

“ I have designedly forborn to mention that Authority of an Husband over his Wife, which is usually given to him, not only by private Writers, but even by Laws, because I think it has been carried much too high. I would have them live so far upon the Level, as (according to my constant Lesson) to be governed both by Reason. If the Man's Reason be stronger, or his Knowledge and Experience greater (as 'tis commonly supposed to be) the Woman will be obliged upon that Score to pay a Deference and submit to him. ”

“ I suppose the prime Design, and ultimate End of all equitable Governments, is so to proportion Authority and Subjection, that they may in some sort Counter-poise each other; by investing the Governing with such Prerogatives, and allowing the Governed such Privileges, that each Part may be provided for, according to their several just Pretensions; and that no one Set of People might be exposed to Oppression, either from their publick or private Governors; that Order and Equity may run through all Ranks, and compose one uniform collective Body. ”

“ I have been informed by Persons of great Integrity, who have long resided in Portugal and consequently had Opportunities of ing the Customs of the Country, that a Wife in Portugal if she brought never a Farthing, has Power to dispose of half her Husband's Estate by Will; whereas a Woman by our Laws alienates all her own Property so entirely by Marriage, that if she brought an hundred thousand Pounds in Money, she cannot bequeath one single Penny, even if she left her own nearest and dearest Relations starving for Want. ”

“ Wollaston and Mr. Hobbs could make into Nature, they could find no Foundation in Nature for that very great Superiority which is ascribed to the Man.
How comes it to pass then, that the Opinions and Customs of all Nations should give him that Superiority, even where 'tis supposed they could have had no Information of the Curse of Subjection passed upon the Woman? I say all Nations, the Exceptions being too few to destroy a general Rule, tho' enough to establish Mr. Hobbs's Assertion, that the Superiority is not founded in Nature. ”

“ I acknowledge this to be available, if done with the Consent of her intended Husband otherwise the Court of Chancery will relieve him. But if we reflect how extreamly ignorant all young Women are as to points in Law, and how their Education and Way of Life, shuts them out from the Knowledge of their true Interest in almost all things, we shall find that their Trust and Confidence in the Man they love, and Inability to make use of the proper Means to guard against his Falsehood, leave few in a Condition to make use of that Precaution. ”

“ I put the Case that the Woman, brought the whole Fortune, because many Men make no Scruple to marry a Woman they don't Love, for the Sake of her Money; it may therefore be suposed, that Women of Fortune, are more liable to Injuries of that Kind than any other Part of the Sex. ”

“ The Wit of Man cannot contrive a Law of such universal Influence, as to reach every particular Case that may happen. If therefore we should find some Exempt Case, in which some particular Woman might be favoured by those very Laws which oppress Wives in General, it would only shew that Man, cannot controul Events, and that God can, and does, bring Good out of Evil. But after all, it cannot be suppos'd that Mrs. Lewis, or any Woman in her Senses, would suffer a Will to remain in Force to the Prejudice of her own Children ”

“ Powers, who are supposed to act according to Law; for when the King delegates his executive Authority to his Judges, and a Man and his Wife are brought before them, and indicted for Murder, an horrid Sin against God, and the greatest Sin against the State (except Treason) the Wife as acting under the Command of the Husband shall be acquitted, and the Man hanged. What an Intimation does that give, that our Laws will at least, connive at an Outrage against God, and tearing asunder the very Bands of Society, provided the Woman acts in Obedience to her Husband? ”

“ The Laws of England allow a Wife no such Privilege; for if a Man having no real Estate, marries a Woman with any Fortune in Money, and covenants to leave her such a Part of it at his Death, if afterwards she perceives that he designs to spend the whole in his Life-time, she cannot take any Method to prevent it, the Law allowing her no Remedy. ”

“ I shall now proceed to consider the Unreasonableness of those Laws, which divest a Woman of all Property in her Children.
As the Law of God gives the Husband the supream Command in his Family, 'tis just that he should have the Disposal of the Children so long as he is in being. But at his Death that Power seems to devolve upon the Wife. She is then the only natural Governor and Guardian of her Children.
I believe there are no Creatures (except of the human Species) where the Male and Female are necessarily concerned in bringing up their joint Offspring ”

“ If a Wife impatient of an Injury of this Kind, which is indeed a virtual Dissolution of the Marriage, appeals to the higher Powers for an actual Divorce, 'tis possible she may obtain it, with a small Pittance, with which she may keep herself from Disease and Want. If she brought the whole that the Husband possesses, she may be assigned the fourth or fifth Part, and be (which it must be supposed the Law can give a wife and equitable Reason for) be indulged with the Remainder, to make as just use of, as he had done with the Whole. ”

“ But no Thanks to the Laws of our Country for that Exemption; let every particular Woman who is well treated, thank God and her Husband for the Blessing. At the same Time, she may reflect, that she is in the Condition of a Slave, tho' she is not treated as such, according to the Opinion of a late eminent Member of the House of Commons, who declared in that honourable Assembly, that he thought "that Nation in a State of Slavery, where any Man had it in his Power to make them so, tho' perhaps the Rod might not always be held over their Backs." ”

“ A Son is not consider'd as a free Agent, when he Acts with his Father, till he comes to the full use of his understanding; and the Indulgence he receives before, is a Favour to the Weakness of his Intellects, not to the Weakness of his Body.
In Short, either Wives can judge how far, and in what instances an Husband is to be obeyed, or they cannot: If they are so undiscerning as not to be able to perceive the essential Difference between obeying their Husbands in the Lord, and in the direct Opposition to and Defiance of him ”

“ Our Laws give the Husband the entire Disposal of the Wife's Person, but she does not seem to retain any Property in his; He may recover Damages of any Man who shall invade his Property in her, but she cannot recover Damage from a Woman, who shall invade her Property in him.
Indeed a Wife may carry her complaint to the spiritual Court, and obtain a Sentence and Costs against the Woman who shall injure her; but 'tis afterwards in the Husband's Power to release these Costs, [1] which no Doubt any Husband would do, in Favour of a Woman whom he preferred to his Wife. ”

“ The Husband has the Dispofal of the whole Income of the Wife's Lands, for his and her Life: And in Cases where the Husband and Wife can join to pass a Fine upon her Lands to raise Money upon any Exigency of their Family, he has Power alone afterwards to mortgage in Consequence of that Fine, and to employ that Money so raised upon his Wife's Estate, according to his particular Pleasure, which perhaps may be upon an Harlot to injure her yet more for her Generosity. ”

“ But our Laws give an Husband the Power to supersede that Command, by allowing him to take all things from his Wife, and then to prevent her obtaining any thing more, by her Labour or Ingenuity. Her intellectual and personal Abilities seem to be her own, since no Pacts can transfer them to another, yet her Husband can prevent her Exertion of them, either for herself or Children, even when he won't do any thing for them himself. ”

“ For since we seem to be hastening into a State of Nature, in which there can be no Appeal but to the Laws of our Country, and the Authority of Scripture is going down, which directs a Man to erect a private Court of Equity in his own Breast, what shall restrain the Strong from oppressing the Weak, if the Laws of our Country do not, they being in such a State the only established Rules of Society? ”

“ The most indifferent Action which a Woman does at the Command of her Husband, from a Sense that God has commanded her to obey him, becomes an Act of Religion, and as such, is rewardable to all Eternity. 'Tis frequently a complicated Act of Virtue; 'tis always Obedience, which includes Humility; and 'tis many Times self denial, and a Conquest over her own Passions. ”

“ And that this Subjection in the woman is the Effect of a Curse, consequent to that Offence which wrought our Fall, is evident, because on Supposition that human Nature were in a State of Perfection, where Reason ruled and Perverseness had no Place, there seems to be no imaginable Reason why one Sex should be in Subjection to the other: And accordingly we find, that the Woman was given at first under no other Character but that of a Companion, because it was not good for Man to be alone ”

“ When God, who knows all things perfectly and does all Things wisely, thinks fit to recall one Parent, our Laws give Man, who knows nothing perfectly and does many Things unwisely, the Power to deprive the Child of his Other Parent also, by ordering the Child into other Hands, where the Mother's Care and Affection can be of no Service to him. ”

“ The Council for the Will cited many Authorities from the civil Law, and shewed, that among the Romans, if a Man had made his Will, and was afterwards taken Captive, such Will revived and became again in Force, by the Testator's repossessing his Liberty: And thence inferred, that as Marriage was a State of Captivity, Wills made by Women who became Free by Survivorship ought to revive with their Freedom. ”

“ One Reason of such Exemption I take to be this, that a Woman's lying in Jail will pay no Man his Money, and so some Persons might chance to become Losers by her; 'tis therefore Decreed, that her Husband who possesses her Property, shall be answerable for her Debts. ”

“ I acknowledge they are Tricks [8] and Cheats, and no Part of the Law itself; yet they are practicable in Consequence of the Law, which gives the sole Property of the Wife's Fortune to the Husband, by which he is enabled to pay the Debts contracted to purchase her, our of her own Estate. 'Tis true, a Woman may impose upon a Man, by telling him she has a Fortune when she has none, and (if the Man is weak enough) by Artifice engage him to marry her upon that Supposition. ”