Kent further says: 'The disability of the wife to contract, so as to bind herself, arises not from want of discretion, but because she has entered into an indissoluble connection by which she is placed under the power and protection of her husband.' She is possessed of certain rights until she is married; then all are suspended, to revive, again, the moment the breath goes out of the husband's body.

(See 'Cowen's Treatise,' vol.2, p.

709.) "If the contract be equal, whence come the terms 'marital power,' 'marital rights,' 'obedience and restraint,' 'dominion and control,' 'power and protection,' etc., etc.?
Many cases are stated, showing the exercise of a most questionable power over the wife, sustained by the courts.

(See 'Bishop on Divorce,' p.

489.) "The laws on divorce are quite as unequal as those on marriage; yea, far more so.