33
judge, it should be added, who throughout the trial appeared favourable to the prisoner, disallowed various questions of the prosecution as to the previous relations with the husband, and cut short the medical evidence, saying that he did not like to see the time of the Court wasted with cases such as these, or words to that effect. Of course not! Mere husband-killing, after all—what is that? In the opposite case, that of killing a wife by the husband, how often have judges been careful to point out to the jury that any unlawful assault, if death happened to result from it, was, in the eyes of the law, wilful murder!
NON-MATRIMONIAL PRIVILEGES OF WOMEN
As has already been stated, the division of our subject into the Matrimonial, Civil, and Criminal and Non-Matrimonial Privileges of Women, although obviously convenient, necessitates some overlapping. This, however, is unavoidable, as, for many reasons, it is well to keep the promised or actual wife's privileges against her husband and others clear from those of other women.
But women in general have many and serious privileges besides those affecting the matrimonial or quasi-matrimonial relations.
THE CRIMINAL LAW.
The express wording of the law—and, much more, the tacit warping of the Criminal Law in favour of women by the bias of judge, jury, and the press—has created a regular system of conferring privileges on women as against men, or against the community in general:—
- 1. As regards Trial.
- 2. As regards Sentence.
- 3. As regards Prison Treatment.
- 4. As regards Pardon.
