24 APRIL 1909, Page 40

The Status of Woman. By A. Beatrice Wallis Chapman and

Mary Wallis Chapman. (G. Routledge and Sons. 2s. Od.)—Here we have in the shape of annals, arranged chronologically, the laws for the last eight centuries and a half by which the status of women in the commonwealth has been modified. We begin in 1100 with a charter of Henry I., in which certain safeguards are provided for the marriage of spinsters and widows. Female wards of the King are to be given in marriage according to the counsel of his Barons ; widows are not to be given in marriage against their will! This is the beginning. The last item is in 1909, when Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D., was elected Mayor of Aldeburgh.