purchased by either shall have in fact gone to the support
of the family, or for the joint benefit of both, or for the
reasonable apparel of the wife, or for her reasonable
support while abandoned by her husband. It shall, however,
be the duty of the husband to support his family, and his
property, when found, shall be first applied to satisfy any
such joint liability. The wife shall be entitled to
indemnity for any money of her own used to pay such claims.
We have used almost the precise language of the first and
second sections of the act.

On the death of either, the survivor shall be entitled to
the use for life of one-third the estate of the deceased,
which right cannot be defeated by will. If the deceased
leaves no children or representatives of children, the
survivor is entitled to one-half instead of one-third. When
either party gives a legacy to the other, the latter may
choose between its rights under the will, and those under
the statute. Abandonment without cause may defeat this
provision, and a marriage contract may supersede it
entirely. Parties already married may contract to surrender
their present rights for those secured by this statute, such
contracts to be recorded in the probate court.

Thus we have a new and clear statute framed in accordance
with a simple principle of reform, for which the
_Republican_ has long done battle--the equality of married
persons in their rights and responsibilities of property.
The adoption of the reform is due deeply to the general
agitation of the rights of women, the efforts of Mrs.
Isabella Beecher Hooker, the Smith girls' cows, and perhaps
some flagrant instance of injustice to rich wives by tyrant
husbands near the capital. But the great occasion and
immediate cause, without which this generation might have
pleaded for it in vain, was the perception of the justice of
it by Governor Hubbard, and his open advocacy of it in his
message. Lawyers have one answer for all reforms regarding
property or civil contracts--they are impossible. But here
was undeniably the best lawyer in the State who said, and