553 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



or other. All that I need consider in reference to the present purpose 

 is the question whether the laws and moral rules which relate to it 

 should regard it as a contract between equals, or as a contract between 

 a stronger and a weaker person involving subordination for certain 

 purposes on the part of the weaker to the stronger. I say that a law 

 which proceeded on the former and not on the latter of these views 

 would be founded on a totally false assumption, and would involve 

 cruel injustice in the sense of extreme general inexpediency, especially 

 to women. If the parties to a contract of marriage are treated as 

 equals, it is impossible to avoid the inference that marriage, like other 

 partnerships, may be dissolved at pleasure. The advocates of women's 

 rights are exceedingly shy of stating this plainly. Mr. Mill says noth- 

 ing about it in his book on the " Subjection of Women," though in one 

 place he comes very near to saying so, but it is as clear an inference 

 from his principles as any thing can possibly be, nor has he ever dis- 

 avowed it. If this were the law, it would make women the slaves of 

 their husbands. A woman loses the qualities which make her attrac- 

 tive to men much earlier than men lose those which make them attrac- 

 tive to women. The tie between a woman and young children is gen- 

 erally far closer than the tie between them and their father. A 

 woman who is no longer young, and who is the mother of children, 

 would thus be absolutely in her husband's power, in nine cases out of 

 ten, if he might put an end to the marriage when he pleased. This is 

 one inequality in the position of the parties which must be recognized 

 and provided for beforehand if the contract is to be for their common 

 good. A second inequality is this : When a man marries, it is gen- 

 erally because he feels himself established in life. He incurs, no doubt, 

 a good deal of expense, but he does not in any degree impair his 

 means of earning a living. When a woman marries, she practically 

 renounces in all but the rarest cases the possibility of undertaking any 

 profession but one, and the possibility of carrying on that one profes- 

 sion in the society of any man but one. Here is a second inequality. 

 It would be easy to mention others of the deepest importance, but 

 these are enough to show that to treat a contract of marriage as a 

 contract between persons who are upon an equality in regard of 

 strength and power to protect their interest is to treat it as being what 

 it notoriously is not. 



Again, the contract is one which involves subordination and obe- 

 dience on the part of the weaker party to the stronger. The proof 

 of this is, to my mind, as clear as that of a proposition in Euclid, and 

 it is this : 



1. Marriage is a contract, one of the principal ones of which is the 

 government of a family. 



2. This government must be vested either by law or by contract in 

 the hands of one of the two married persons. 



3. If the arrangement is made by contract, the remedy for breach 



