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3. Whenever a pecuniary fine is imposed, nominally on the wife, the husband is the vicarious sufferer. He has to pay.
With this preface let us consider the law and practice as regards a wife's offences against the husband, in the order of their frequency.
(a) Impunity for Insolence and Insult.
The most elaborate cruelty in the way of insolence and insult is unpunishable by the law when committed by the wife. The husband remains bound to support his torturer, who may publicly waylay and insult him, harass him at his work, procure his dismissal, libel him by postcards sent to his workshop, or to his club. If he be a rich man, he can get some tardy redress in the way of palliation; but he remains liable to divorce and expropriation at his wife's behest. The rod, the cucking school, the indictment as a scold at the assizes were the methods adopted by the Law of England and sanctioned by the Canon Law, until the present century, to repress such outrages. Now the feminine noblesse can torture their slaves with impunity.
If the husband retaliates, the magistrate's order promptly consigns him to gaol and the prisoners' lash.
(b) Impunity for Neglect.
The wife may repudiate every one of her duties, may utterly neglect her household, her children, and her husband. No remedy either in the police court or the divorce court for the husband.
If the husband neglect the wife in this connection—"neglect" is a very elastic word—consequences ensue of which the chief are—
- (1) The prompt police court separation order, and confiscation of property and wages of husband (enforced by imprisonment).
