killed him it was "petty treason,"
the revolt of a subject against a sovereign in a miniature
kingdom, and a more serious offence than murder. Murder she could
not commit in his presence, for her personality was merged in
him; he was responsible for most of her crimes and offences (it
was that fact which gave him the right to chastise her), and he
could not even enter into a contract with her, for that would be
entering into a contract with himself. "The very being and legal
existence of a woman is suspended during marriage," said
Blackstone, "or at least is incorporated and consolidated into
that of her husband, under whose wing, protection and cover she
performs everything. So great a favorite," he added, "is the
female sex of the laws of England." "The strength of woman," says
Hobhouse, interpreting the sense of the English law, "was her
weakness. She conquered by yielding. Her gentleness had to be
guarded from the turmoil of the world, her fragrance to be kept
sweet and fresh, away from the dust and the smoke of battle.
Hence her need of a champion and guardian."

In France the wife of the mediaeval and Renaissance periods
occupied much the same position in her husband's house. He was
her absolute master and lord, the head and soul of "the feminine
and feeble creature" who owed to him "perfect love and
obedience." She was his chief servant, the eldest of his
children, his wife and subject; she signed herself "your humble
obedient daughter and friend," when she wrote to him. The
historian, De Maulde la Claviere, who has brought together
evidence on this point in his _Femmes de la Renaissance_, remarks
that even though the husband enjoyed this lofty and superior
position in marriage, it was still generally he, and not the
wife, who complained of the hardships of marriage.

Law and custom assumed that a woman should be more or less under the
protection of a man, and even the ideals of fine womanhood which arose in
this society, during feudal and later times, were necessarily tinged by
the same conception. It involved the inequality of women as compared with
men, but under the social conditions of a feudal society such inequality
was to woman's advantage. Masculine force was the determining factor in
life and it was necessary that every woman should have a portion of this
force on her side. This sound an