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Kandhs of India.1 In the Laws of Manu, the mythical legislator of the Hindus, it is said, "A wife, a son, and a slave, these three are declared to have no property; the wealth they earn is acquired for him to whom they belong." But according to the standard commentators this only means that the persons mentioned are unable to dispose of their property independently; and it is expressly stipulated that property acquired by learning belongs exclusively to the person to whom it was given, and so also the gift of a friend. In Rome the peculium, or separate property, allowed to a son, was originally subject to the authority of the house-father, should he choose to exercise such authority; and it was only by very late legislation that sons were secured the independent holding of their peculium. Even now it is the law in many European countries that, during the minority of a child, the father or mother has the usufruct of its property, with the exception of certain kinds of property expressly specified."

Among some uncivilised peoples women are said to be incapable of holding property; but this is certainly not the rule among savage tribes, not even among the very lowest. When Mr. Snow wished to buy a canoe from some Fuegians, his request was refused on the ground that the object in question belonged to an old woman, who would not part with it; and among the blacks of Australia Mr. Curr has often heard husbands ask permission of their wives to take something out of their bags." There are instances in which the property owned by a

1 Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 62.

2 Laws of Manu, viii. 416. See also Nárada, v. 41.

3 Buehler, in his translation of the Laws of Manu, Sacred Books of the East, xxv. 326, n. 416.

Laws of Manu, ix. 206.

5 Hunter, Exposition of Roman Law, p. 292 sqq. Maine, Dissertations on Early Law and Custom, p. 252. Girard, Manuel élémentaire de droit romain, pp. 135, 138 sqq.

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6 Bridel, Le droit des femmes et le mariage, p. 156.

7 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, p. 13 (tribes of the Cameroons). Marshall, A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, P. 206. Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, iii. 129 (some Indian tribes of North America).

8 Snow, Wild Tribes of Tierra del Fuego,' in Jour. Ethn. Soc. London, N.S. i. 264.

9 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 66.

woman is by marriage transferred to her husband; ' but more commonly, it seems, the wife remains mistress of her own property during the existence of the marriage relation." Among many savages considerable proprietary privileges are granted to the female sex. We have seen that the household goods are frequently regarded as the special property of the wife. Among the Navahos of New Mexico everything, except horses and cattle, practically belongs to the married women. Among the Kafirs of Natal, "when a man takes his first wife, all the cows he possesses are regarded as her property," and the husband. can, theoretically, neither sell nor otherwise dispose of them without his wife's consent.5 The Mandans of North America have a custom that all the horses which a young man steals or captures in war belong to his sisters." Among the Koch of India, we are told, "the men are so gallant as to have made over all property to the women."7 As regards woman's right of ownership nations of a higher culture compare unfavourably with many savages. In Japan the husband formerly had full rights over the property of his wife. We have already noticed the disabilities in point of ownership to which women were once subject in India; but the development of the strīdhana, or peculium of the female members of a family, shows that they gradually became less dependent on their husbands in

1 Mason, in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxvii. pt. ii. 142 (Karens). Sumner, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxi. 94 (Jakuts). Post, Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Familienrechts, p. 291.

2 von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 330 (Bakairi). Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 326. Lala, Philippine Islands, p. 91. Hagen, Unter den Papua's, pp. 226, 243 (Papuans of Bogadjim, Kaiser Wilhelm Land). Kubary, Die Palau-Inseln in der Südsee,' in Jour. des Museum Godef froy, iv. 54. Ratzel, History of Mankind, i. 279 (various South Sea Islanders). Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 373. Bosman, op. cit. p.

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matters relating to property. Among the ancient Hebrews women appear to have been in every respect regarded as minors so far as proprietary rights were concerned. In Rome a marriage with conventio in manum, which was the regular form of marriage in early times, gave the husband a right to all the property which the wife had when she married, and entitled him to all she might acquire afterwards whether by gift or by her own labour. Later on marriage without manus became the ordinary Roman marriage, and this, together with the downfall of the ancient patria potestas, led to the result that finally all the wife's property was practically under her own control, save when a part of it had been converted by settlement into a fund for contributing to the expenses of the conjugal household. But, as we have noticed in another place, the new religion was not favourable to the remarkable liberty granted to married women during the pagan Empire; and the combined influence of Teutonic custom and Canon law led to those proprietary incapacities of wives which up to quite recent times have disfigured the lawbooks of Christian Europe. In England, before 1857, even a man who had abandoned his wife and left her unaided to support his family might at any time return to appropriate her earnings and to sell everything she had acquired, and he might again and again desert her, and again and again repeat the process of spoliation. 1870 a law was passed securing to women the legal control of their own earnings, but all other female property, with some insignificant exceptions, was left absolutely unprotected. And it was not until the Married Women's

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Property Act of 1882 that a full right to their own property was given to English wives.1

A third class of persons who in many cases are considered incapable of holding property of their own is the slave class. It may indeed be asked whether a slave ever has the right of ownership in the full sense of the term. Yet slaves are frequently said to be owners of property; and though this "ownership" may have originally been a mere privilege granted to them by their masters and subject to withdrawal at the discretion of the latter,3 it is undoubtedly in several cases a genuine right guaranteed by custom. Among the Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, if the slaves work for others, they do not hand the wages over to their masters, but keep the pay themselves. In Africa, in particular, it is a common thing for slaves to have private property; in Southern Guinea there are slaves who are wealthier than their masters. In some African countries, as we have seen, the slave is obliged to work for his master only on certain days of the week or a certain number of hours, and has the rest of his time free. So also in ancient Mexico the slave was allowed a certain amount of time to labour for his own advantage. A Babylonian slave had his peculium, of which, at least under normal circumstances, he was in safe possession." In Rome anything a slave acquired was legally his master's; but he was

1 Lecky, Democracy and Liberty, ii. 536 sq. Cleveland, Woman under the English Law, p. 279 sqq. For the laws of other European countries see Bridel, op. cit. p. 61 sqq., and for the history of the subject see Gide, Étude sur la condition de la femme, passim.

2 Post, Grundriss der ethnol. Juris prudenz, i. 370, 381. Holmberg, in Acta Soc. Scientiarum Fennicæ, iv. 330 sq. (Thlinkets). Kohler, 'Recht der Marschallinsulaner,' in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Rechtswiss. xiv. 428 sq. Volkens, op. cit. p. 249 (Wadshagga). Lang, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 241 (Washambala).

3 Nicole, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 119 (Diakité-Sarracolese). Senfft, ibid. p. 442 (Marshall Islanders).

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4 Scott Robertson, op. cit. p. 100.

5 Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 366. Ellis, Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 219. Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 43 (Banaka and Bapuku). Tellier, ibid. pp. 169, 171 (Kreis Kita). Baskerville, ibid. p. 193 (Waganda). Beverley, ibid. p. 213 (Wagogo). Dale, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxv. 230 (Wabondei). Munzinger, Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos, p. 43. Idem, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 309 sq. (Beni Amer).

6 Wilson, Western Africa, p. 271. 7 Supra, i. 677.

8 Bancroft, op. cit. ii. 221.

Kohler and Peiser, Aus dem babylonischen Rechtsleben, i. I. See also supra, i. 684.

in practice permitted to enjoy and accumulate chance earnings or savings or a share of what he produced, which was regarded not as his property in the full sense of the term, but as his peculium. In the Middle Ages slaves, and in many instances serfs also, were, strictly speaking, destitute of proprietary rights. In England it was held that whatever was acquired by a villein was acquired by his lord. At the same time his chattels did not eo ipso lapse into the lord's possession, but only if the latter actually seized them; and if he for some reason or other refrained from doing doing so the villein was practically their owner in respect of all persons but his lord. In the British and French colonies and the American Slave States

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the negro slaves had no legal rights of property in things real or personal. According to the laws of Georgia, masters must not permit their slaves to labour for their own benefit, at a penalty of thirty dollars for every such weekly offence; and in other States they were expressly forbidden to suffer their slaves to hire out themselves. In some places, however, negro slaves might hold a peculium. In Arkansas a statute was passed granting masters the right of allowing their slaves to do work on their own behalf on Sundays; and in the British colonies Sunday was made a marketing day for the slaves so as to encourage them to labour for themselves. In the Civil Code of Louisiana

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Digesta, xv. 1. 39. Wallon, His

toire de l'esclavage dans l'antiquité, ii. 181 sq. Ingram, History of Slavery, P. 44. Hunter, Roman Law, pp. 157, 290 sq. Girard, op. cit. p. 95.

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Supra, i. 697. Guérard, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres, i. xlvii. p.

3 Vinogradoff, Villainage in Eng land, p. 67 sq. Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. i. 416, 419.

4 Stephen, Slavery of the British West India Colonies, i. 58. Code Noir, Edit du mois de Mars 1685, art. 28, p. 42 sq.; Edit donné au mois de Mars 1724, art. 22, p. 295 sq. Stroud, Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery

in the several States of the United States of America, p. 74. Goodell, American Slave Code, p. 89 sqq.

5 Prince, Digest of the Laws of Georgia, p. 788.

6 Caruthers and Nicholson, Compilation of the Statutes of Tennessee, P. 675. Hoesen, Alden and van Digest of the Laws of Mississippi, p. 751. Morehead and Brown, Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky, ii. 1480

7 Ball and Roane, Revised Statutes of Arkansas, xliv. 7. 2. 8, p. 276 sq.

8 Edwards, History of the British West Indies, ii. 181.

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