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sex, or previous condition of servitude," it may as well be admitted, that it contains within its provisions a welldirected thrust at woman's rights, so that she no longer has even the right bestowed on a member of the English Parliament, the right to wear her hat. Where will the dear woman wear her best bonnet if not at the opera? has entered the field of statesmanship.

Verily the freak

Let us suggest that our next Legislature "conclude the evening's entertainment" by adopting the bill proposed by a recent Western law maker, placing a ten dollar tax on chin whiskers. It is not yet agreed whether this bill was in the interest of the tonsorial artist, or was projected as a means for destroying the identity of the Populist spellbinder.

Gentlemen, however ludicrous the foregoing list of proposed laws may seem, they are vouched for by a reputable legal journal as having been actually introduced in various legislative assemblies, during the past year.

It is somewhat surprising and a matter of regret that when an effort was made by the last Legislature to amend the law regulating the removal of county and district officers, a law unfortunately for our good reputation abroad and our better judgment at home, which seemingly is much in evidence nowadays, the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeals in the case of Arkle v. The Board of Commissioners of Ohio County, was apparently forgotten or ignored, and that some provision was not made for the removal of justices of the peace and other officers by a proper tribunal, that could act without violating the constitution. The decision in the Arkle Case having been handed down in December, 1895, it would seem that it was the solemn duty of the Legislature of 1897 to place in the hands of the circuit courts the duty of removing from office all county officers, instead of fixing the county court as it did, as the tribunal for removing certain of the officers in the face of the court's decision, rendered a year before, determining that the county court had no such jurisdiction under the constitution.

As we now see it, there is no tribunal in West Virginia with power to remove for any cause, clerks of the county court, superintendents of free schools, assessors, justices or constables, at least so far as provided by any statute.

But of what practical utility are our statute laws anyway? To know the law, to know where to find it, and to know how to apply it, are said to be three essentials in the make-up of a good lawyer. If we are granted no opportunity to know the law, and there is no place to find it, it is impossible to try to apply it. And so it seems to be with the recent acts passed by the Legislature. After nine long months of weary watching and waiting, they have at last appeared. No language is strong enough to condemn this intolerable state of affairs. It is simply monstrous and outrageous, and has nearly always been so, and in my opinion will be so, so long as the law relating to the public printing remains in its present confused, chaotic and complicated condition. There are too many heads to the department, too many loopholes by provisos enabling an evasion of the law, and the printing of the laws, which should be most speedily done, is thrown into the general hotchpot of other printing where it should not belong. No reason can exist why those now entitled to copies of the laws, and others who should be entitled to them, should not have, by plain direction of statute, advance sheets of each act passed, immediately as the same is approved by the Governor, or as it may become a law without his signature. Nor can there be any reason why there should not be designated a superintendent of public printing of the laws, whose duty, under heavy penalty, it would be to have the entire body of acts passed, printed and bound and distributed within a reasonable fixed time after the adjournment of the Legislature with no loopholes or provisos for escape. As the law regulating the printing of the acts now stands, we whose duty and interest it is to know the law immediately it goes into effect, and whose duty it is not, are, as to our statute laws, like the Cuban patriots in Havana prison, in a dire state of incommunicado.

I am glad to be able to say that it is reported on good authority that the uncalled for and unaccountable delay of printing the last acts (for bad as the law is, the delay is unaccountable) is to be investigated by the commissioners of public printing. Nothing short of a thorough, systematic overhauling of chapter 16 of the Code, by a competent commission, will go to the root of the evil, and the time is overripe for such overhauling. The matter of public printing is an important one to the State. The law regulating the public printing is necessarily extensive, and any revision or amendment should be made after considerable time and thought upon the subject. A suggestion that this association appoint a competent committee to draft a bill revising the law upon this subject, would be appropriate at this time.

A bar association meeting would be considered anything but a success at which no speech was made, address delivered, paper read or resolution offered, touching upon the vexed question of the laws relating to married women. This association in the past has done justice to the subject by its efforts, and still more remains to be done. Mainly through the work of this association, and of its active individual members has it come to pass that with some degree of independence, and without losing her self-respect, a married woman can acknowledge her deed, and with a further tardy admission by the law as to her sanity, can she, under certain conditions, transact business, make contracts, and sue and be sued. Might we not go a step further, and permit her to dispose of her real estate, at least as the husband is permitted to dispose of his, "without the aid or consent of any other nation on earth." And thus we might gradually place her on the legal footing where she belongs, and to which she is entitled, and where all women are by law, so long as they remain spinsters. Why she should in this day be classed as of a lower intelligence, immediately she marries, can only be conjectured by reason of the choice of a husband that some of them make. Might we not also take a step in advance by giving

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her some respectful attention on the death of her so-called liege lord and master? If any valid reason ever existed for the present difference in value between the dower of the wife and the curtesy of the husband, no such reason can at this day be called to the aid of such injustice. Why at this day the wife should be endowed for life in but onethird of her husband's land, while the husband's estate in curtesy is in all of the wife's lands, is beyond comprehension. The husband and oldest son are no longer supposed to go to the wars, while the wife and younger sons toil to supply the army, and by reason thereof, she must at the death of the husband have her life estate to the extent of her toil, and to that extent only. Neither do the alleged reasons for estates" by the curtesy of England," or "by the courts of England" exist in this country. The husband has no "Lord's Court" to attend as vassal in right of his wife. The reason of the law having ceased, the law in its present form by virtue of that reason should cease. Dower and curtesy, as defined at common law, might be abolished, and a reasonable, consistent, nineteenth-century provision under the Chapter of Descents and Distributions, might take their place, whereby the woman bereft of her support, and oftentimes left with helpless children to maintain and educate, should be placed on an equal footing, at least, with a man who survives his wife as to their respective interests in each other's land.

But why, my brethren, do those things longer by piecemeal at all? Has not civilization so far shed its light on West Virginia soil that with one fundamental act we can emancipate the married woman, giving her the same rights and privileges under the law that she had before her marriage? And why should we not now suggest and propose to the State Constitutional Committee now existing, or to the Legislature that will pass on those proposed constitutional amendments, an additional amendment, borrowing from the language of the constitution of the sister State of Mississippi, as follows:

"The legislature shall never create any distinction

between the rights of men and women to acquire, own, enjoy and dispose of property of all kinds, or their power to contract in reference thereto. Married women are hereby emancipated from all disability on account of coverture."

Is any argument needed to show or to see the entire expediency, eminent propriety, and eternal fitness of this? Do we not all know it is right, and that the relic of a bygone, semi-barbarous age, which we have, and call a law, is not right?

If the influence of this association could ingraft into our constitution some such provision, future generations, in my humble judgment, would proclaim that for and on account of this influence as well as for other reforms inaugurated the West Virginia Bar Association had not lived in vain.

SOME PROFESSIONAL IMPROPRIETIES.

BY HON. JOSEPH MORELAND.

Human beings, as a rule, have no other end in life but happiness, either for themselves or for others. Morality and religion accord with this universal object of pursuit. It is true that in past and existing ethical precepts men have been much influenced and guided by sentiment, but whether guided by sentiment or utility, in all their actions, the presence of considerations of utility is obvious, if not paramount. Even the will of the Deity is enforced by future rewards and punishments, and gain seems to be the impelling motive to duty. I submit this unpretentious performance, with a view to the betterment of my chosen profession and of myself.

I shall not attempt a sentimental oration, condemning or approving for the sake of pleasing popular opinion. I desire rather to submit some thoughts, about matters pertaining to our every-day life-matters which I think are the source of annoyance and ill to every member of this Asso

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