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and punished if they were cognisant of offences, or neglected to restrain the habits of their servants after conviction.

The code of the Ostrogoths (Edictum Theodorici), composed by order of Theodoric in A. D. 500, is a collection of Roman laws. Theodoric wished to unite the Romans and Goths into one people, and he therefore adopted the laws of the most civilised of his subjects. The wehrgeld or wehre, the fine for crimes, was entirely abolished, and in place of it the punishment of death was introduced in many

cases.

The ravishers, or carriers off, of freewomen, as well as all accomplices, were punished capitally. The woman was also punished with death if she consented. So also a freeman, who forcibly ravished a servant, was punished capitally; but if the crime was committed by a slave, his punishment was death, whether the woman consented or not. In the case of the forcible defilement of a free maiden, the offender, if of noble birth, was obliged to marry her, and endow her with a fifth part of his property. If already married, he forfeited a third part to enable her to marry. If he had no patrimony or rank, the offence was capital.

The distinction of the Lex Julia with respect to the offence of stuprum, that if committed with a prostitute, it was not punishable, occurs in this code.

The defiler of a serving woman, of whatever age,

might, if he was willing, and the woman's master or lord also consented, go into the lord's service and unite himself to the woman for life. But if the lord refused his consent, or the offender was unwilling, he delivered two pledges, or mancipia, to the lord for the profits of his land, if he had any, or on failure of that he was handed over to the neighbouring justices to be impleaded and imprisoned.

Athalaric, in his edictum a few years later, forbad concubinage, providing that, in the case of a married man, he and his sons should become the slaves of the wife.*

The almost total absence of provisions in these laws against trading in seduction is remarkable. The code of the Visigoths is the only one comprising the offence of public prostitution. This apparent deficiency is accounted for by the fact, that there were no cities or towns among these northern nations, and consequently that there was an absence of those crimes which are their inseparable attendants.

Having thus given a sketch of the main features of the laws of Rome and of the Germanic tribes, no attempt will be made to follow them in their subsequent infusion into the laws of modern European states. The institutions of Rome, as is well known, are still the

* The laws of the various nations alluded to may be found in numerous collections: Canciani (Barborum Leges antiquæ); Heinecius (Corpus Juris Germanici), &c.

standard for the determination of rights and offences in various countries, under the denomination of the Civil Law, either in its purity, or mixed with the customary law of each particular district. On the other hand, the influence of the German laws and customs spread with the diffusion of that race, and may be traced not only in the local customs but in the general rules and principles of law of those countries over which the Saxon or the Frank once held rule and dominion.

The principles of the Roman institution were still further extended by the canon law, which, based upon the civil law, received additions by the canons and decretals of the Church. The canon law was that by which temporal matters within the jurisdiction of the Church were decided, and consequently it obtained a footing and an extended field for application, quite independent of territorial possession. It regulated the punishment for all sin of the kind under consideration, from the minutest act of lasciviousness to the crime of rape, in many of these instances being identical with or closely following the civil law. Although its object was of course the suppression of sin, in endeavouring to effect this it often regulated the respective rights of individuals. Thus, by the canon law, he that deludes a virgin is forced either to marry her, or to give her a sum of money: where, before the seduction, the man makes a promise of marriage in writing, he is compelled to marry her. Even in rape, the subsequent marriage of

the parties sometimes absolve the offender. The object and scope of this Essay, however, as already observed, does not permit a further investigation of these laws, nor are they very material to the subjectmatter in hand. The space must be reserved for the consideration of modern codes established in Europe and elsewhere.

The ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the canon law with respect to this country will be, however, alluded to hereafter.

I shall now proceed to investigate the foundation of the existing laws of this country with respect to the protection of women.

II. HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LEGISLATION IN THIS COUNTRY.

FOLLOWING the Germanic tribes in their colonisation, we arrive at the laws of this country established by the Anglo-Saxons.

By the laws of Æthelbirht, king of Kent (A.D. 560 -616), the penalty for illicit intercourse between a man and the female servants of the king, or of an earl or freeman, was the payment of a "bot," or compensation money, varying with the rank of the master and the services of the woman. *

The abduction of a maiden by force, subjected the offender to the payment of a sum of money (fifty shillings) to the person in whose tutelage she was, as well as imposed upon him the obligation to pay the amount of her "mund," or sum paid to the family of the bride (varying according to her rank), for transferring the tutelage they possessed over her, to the family of the husband.

* Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (published by the Commissioners of Records, 1840), pp. 2, 3.

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