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it her morgen gifu. So Elfleda, in her will, says, "Rettendum that was my morgen gyfu;" and Elfhelm in his will has this passage: "And I declare what I gave to my wife for her morgen give; that is, Beadewan, and Burge stede, and Strætford, and the three hides at Heanhealem." The same testator notices an additional present that he had made his wife on her nuptials : "And I gave to her when we two first came together, the two hides at Wilburgeham, and at Hrægenan, and that thereto lieth." The morgen gift was therefore a settlement on the lady very similar to a modern jointure. It was bargained for before marriage, but was not actually vested in the wife till afterwards. Our conception of the thing will be probably simplified and assisted by recollecting the language of our modern settlements. The land or property conveyed by them is given in trust for the person who grants it "until the said marriage shall take effect; and from and immediately after the solemnization thereof," it is then granted to the uses agreed upon. So the morgen gift was settled before the nuptials, but was not actually given away until the morning afterwards, or until the marriage was completed.

Nothing could be more calculated to produce a very

striking dissimilarity between the Gothic nations and the Oriental states than this exaltation of the female sex to that honour, consequence, and independence, which European laws studied to uphold. As the education of youth will always rest principally with women in the most ductile part of life, it is of the greatest importance that the fair sex should possess high rank and estimation in society, and nothing could more certainly tend to perpetuate this feeling than the privilege of possessing property in their own right, and at their own disposal.

That the Anglo-Saxon ladies both inherited and disposed of property as they pleased, appears from many instances a wife is mentioned who devised land by her will, with the consent of her husband, in his lifetime. We read also of land which a wife had sold in her husband's life. We frequently find wives the parties to a sale of land, and still oftener we read of estates given to women, or devised by men of affluence to their wives. Widows selling property is also a common occurrence; so is the incident of women devising it. That they inherited land is also clear, for a case is mentioned wherein there being no male heir the estate went to a female. Women appear as tenants in capite in Doomsday.

There are many instances of land being granted to both husband and wife. The queens frequently join in the charters with the kings; and it is once mentioned, that a widow and the heirs were sued for her husband's debts. Indeed, the instances of women having property transferred to them, and also of their transmitting it to others, surround it on all sides. To name only a few: a king's mother gave five hides to a noble matron, which she gave to a monastery. When a bishop had bought some lands of an husband and a wife, he fixed a day when she should come and surrender them because she had the greater right to the land by a former husband. A mother bequeathed property to two of her daughters, and to her third daughter Leosware she gave an estate at Weddreingefete on the reproachful condition that she should keep herself chaste or marry, that she and her progeny might not be branded with the infamy of the contagion of prostitution.

In the oldest Anglo-Saxon law widows were protected by an express regulation. Four ranks are mentioned: an eorlcund's widow, another sort, a third and fourth sort. Their tranquillity invaded was to be punished by fines adapted to their quality, as fifty shillings, twenty, twelve, and six shillings. They were also guarded

from personal violence. If any took a widow without her consent he was to be fined a double mulct. It was

also expressly forbidden to any one to marry a woman if she was unwilling.

CHAPTER VIII.

A PORTRAIT GALLERY OF EXCELLENT WIVES.

SELECTIONS of the wives who have done honour to themselves, to their husbands, and to the marriage relationship has been difficult, inasmuch, in spite of current surmises to the contrary, we find the number so great and imposing. Our gallery of model wives we intend to represent different stations and classes in society, from the great and noble to respectable matrons of the middle orders in society. Two admirable works, one large and comprehensive, and the other portable and select, have greatly helped us in the choice we have made-Burder's "Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women," and Mrs. Child's "Good Wives." Our English biographies and memoirs are rich in this class of literature, and we could have much enlarged this chapter of our book.

We are also much beholden to an eloquent volume, entitled "The Daughters of Zion," by the Rev. Dr.

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