We are very glad to see that at least one
Act passed last Session is bearing good fruit already. We mean the useful little Act which enabled a married woman deserted by her husband to obtain a maintenance from him, without making her appli- tion through the Board of Guardians,—in other words, as a pauper. This application through the Guardians has always been disliked, as casting a kind of slur on a woman who is in no respect without proper means of support ; and by the Act of last Session it is no longer necessary. At Longton, in Stafford- shire, two married women thus deserted have obtained an order of the court for a weekly allowance from the husband, and the example is sure to be followed. It is a curious thing that the Parliament which rejected political disruption, and which did so very little else, should have secured to private unionists the proper rights of their union.
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