STUDY VII. 87 



From the fceptre down to the fliepherdefles 

 crook, there is, perhaps, no countrj/^ in Europe 

 where women are treated fo unkindly by the Laws, 

 as in France J and there is no one where they have 

 more power. I believe it is the only kingdom of 

 Europe where they are abfoiutely excluded from 

 the throne. In my country, a father can many 

 his daughters, without giving them any oiher por- 

 tion than a chaplet of rofes : at his death, they 

 have all together only the portion of a younger 

 child. This unjuft diftribution of property is 

 common to the clown as to the gentleman. In 

 the other parts of the kingdom, if they are richer, 

 they are not happier. They are rather fold, than 

 given, in marriage. Of a hundred young women, 

 who there enter into the married ftate, there is not, 

 perhaps, one who is united to her lover. Their 

 condition was even ftill more wretched in former 

 times. Cefar, in his Commentaries, informs us, 

 *' That the hufband had the power of life and 

 *' death over his wife, as well as over his children ; 

 *' that when a man of noble birth happened to die, 

 " the relations of the family affembled ; if there 

 " was the llighteft lliadow of fufpicion againft his 

 " wife, (he was put to the torture as a flave ; and 

 *' if found guilty, was condemned to the flames, 

 *' after a previous procefs of inexpreffible fuiîer- 

 " ing *." 



* Gallic War, book vi. 



G 4 What 



