Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/250

 prisoners sentenced heavily for the most trivial offences against property, whilst others have been leniently treated for crimes against flesh and blood. Some time ago the country was outraged by the passing of a sentence of several months imprisonment upon a boy for stealing a few pennyworth of coal. At the same time a man was fined ten shillings for having criminally assaulted the wife of a neighbour. It is not suggested that this behaviour on the part of magistrates is invariable, but the tendency is always there. Only a few days ago a man was dismissed by the courts because he swore on oath that he thought the girl he had wronged was more than sixteen years of age. Wife-beating is a crime which generally meets with very lenient treatment in this country when compared with an offence against property.

The age at which a girl becomes responsible for her property is twenty-one; but long before that time she is held to be fully responsible for the care of her own person. She may consent to her own moral ruin at the tender age of sixteen. It is well to know in this connection that, in many of the States where women vote, the age of consent is eighteen, and even twenty-one. All feminists are in favour of raising this age; but no feminist would urge this proposal without at the same time taking steps to protect the