Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/473

445 THE ENGLISH STATUTES OF 1895. 445 the outset, it would scarcely ever be necessary to call out the military to shoot unoffending people a mile away from the scene. It is really doubtful, considering the excellent half-penny evening papers, that so thoroughly understand and explain the causes of and remedies for each strike as it occurs, whether picketing is even necessary at all. Be that as it may, a free radius of a mile would not hinder its legitimate use, and some such provision would have relieved the year's legislation from a possible charge of one- sidedness. The Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act, 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. c. 39), greatly extends the jurisdiction of the magistrates and courts of summary jurisdiction under the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 19), and the Married Women (Main- tenance in Case of Desertion) Act, 1886 (49 & 50 Vict. c. 52), the latter of which it repeals. The former Act gave the court power, where a husband was convicted of aggravated assault, and the court was satisfied that the future safety of the wife was in peril, to release her from cohabitation, order maintenance, and give her the custody of the children up to the age of ten. The Act of 1886 gave power to order maintenance in case of desertion, but, except by a meaningless marginal note, did not deal with the custody of children. The present statute provides a remedy for any married woman who has not committed an act of adultery uncondoned, unconnived at, or unconduced by her husband, and whose husband is convicted of an aggravated assault on her, or convicted of assault on her and fined more than £^ or imprisoned over two months, or deserts her or is guilty of such persistent cruelty, or wilful neglect to main- tain her, as to cause her to live apart. In such a case, she may obtain an order tantamount to a decree of judicial separation on the ground of cruelty, custody of the children to the age of sixteen, maintenance, and costs. The order will be discharged if the wife resumes cohabitation or commits adultery. By this provision, a certain prima facie danger of immorality arising from the statute is avoided. The statute is considered highly beneficial to the poorer classes, and probably its scope will sooner or later be extended to those matrimonial remedies which can at present only be obtained by those able to afford the luxury of an application to the High Court of Justice. The next statute is the bar sinister of the year's legislation, being in effect a re-enactment of the ninth clause of the Decalogue.