With all the
apparent freedom accorded to them, fathers claimed and exercised the
right of disposing of their daughters in marriage to suit their own
views or interests. Though free-born, a girl had no choice, if her
father willed it so, in the selection of her husband; and husbands
might, if they wished, dispose of their wives by will, at death, as they
would of any other piece of property. Though in a measure free, because
she was a woman, she was still a slave.
Among the other infringements of the rights of women, and one of the
most barbarous, common to the heathen, both ancient and modern, and to
the Mohammedans, is early betrothal. In fact, the system of betrothal
prevailed to a very great extent among the very earliest nations of
which history furnishes any account, the laws affecting it being only
slightly modified to suit the circumstances of the various tribes by
which it was adopted. The main feature was still the same--the girl had
no choice; there was nothing for her but submission.
The lot of woman in China has, from time immemorial, been a hard one.
Says a writer in the _Westminster Review_ for October, 1855: "Of all
nations, the Chinese carry out the system of early betrothal most
completely; parents in China not only bargain for the marriage of their
children during their infancy, but while they are yet unborn.
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