during coverture, remains her own, and is free from the control of her
husband.

If a married woman is slandered she can prosecute in her own name the
slanderer, and recover to her own use damages for the injury.

The mother now has an equal claim with the father to the custody of
their minor children, and in case of controversy on the subject, courts
may award the custody to either in their discretion.

The husband cannot now by will effectually appoint a guardian for his
infant children without the consent of the mother, if living.

These are certainly great ameliorations of the law; but how have they
been produced? Mainly as the result of the exertions of a few heroic
women, one of the foremost of whom is her who stands arraigned as a
criminal before this Court to-day. For a thousand years the absurdities
and cruelties to which I have alluded have been embedded in the common
law, and in the statute books, and men have not touched them, and would
not until the end of time, had they not been goaded to it by the
persistent efforts of the noble women to whom I have alluded.

Much has been done, but much more remains to be done by women. If they
had possessed the elective franchise, the reforms which have cost them a
quarter of a century of labor would have been accomplished in a year.
They are still subject to taxation upon their property, without any
voice as to the levying or destination of the tax; and are still subject
to laws _made by men_, which subject them to fine and imprisonment for
the same acts which men do with honor and reward--and when brought to
trial no woman is allowed a place on the bench or in the jury box, or a