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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. VIII.: The same Subject continued. - Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws

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CHAP. VIII.: The same Subject continued. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. VIII.

The same Subject continued.

IN England, the law is frequently abused by the daughters marrying according to their own fancy, without consulting their parents. This custom is, I am apt to imagine, more tolerated there than any where else, from a consideration, that as the laws have not established a monastic celibacy, the daughters have no other state to chuse but that of marriage, and this they cannot refuse. In France, on the contrary, young women have always the resource of celibacy; and therefore the law which ordains that they shall wait for the consent of their fathers, may be more agreeable. In this light, the custom of Italy and Spain must be less rational; convents are there established, and yet they may marry without the consent of their fathers.