huſband is not chargeable even for neceſſaries[1]; at leaſt if the perſon, who furniſhes them, is ſufficiently apprized of her elopement[2]. If the wife be indebted before marriage, the huſband is bound afterwards to pay the debt; for he has adopted her and her circumſtances together[3]. If the wife be injured in her perſon or her property, ſhe can bring no action for redreſs without her huſband's concurrence, and in his name, as well as her own[4]: neither can ſhe be ſued, without making the huſband a defendant[5]. There is indeed one caſe where the wife ſhall ſue and be ſued as a feme ſole, viz. where the huſband has abjured the realm, or is baniſhed[6]: for then he is dead in law; and, the huſband being thus diſabled to ſue for or defend the wife, it would be moſt unreaſonable if fhe had no remedy, or could make no defence at all. In criminal proſecutions, it is true, the wife may be indicted and puniſhed ſeparately[7]; for the union is only a civil union. But, in trials of any ſort, they are not allowed to be evidence for, or againſt, each other[8]: partly becauſe it is impoſſible their teſtimony ſhould be indifferent; but principally becauſe of the union of perſon: and therefore, if they were admitted to be witneſſes for each other, they would contradict one maxim of law, "nemo in propria cauſa teſtis eſſe debet;" and if againſt each other, they would contradict another maxim, "nemo tenetur ſeipſum accuſare." But where the offence is directly againſt the perſon of the wife, this rule has been uſually diſpenſed with[9]: and therefore, by ſtatute 3 Hen. VII. c. 2. in caſe a woman be forcibly taken away, and married, ſhe may be a witneſs againſt ſuch her huſband, in order to convict him of felony. For in this caſe ſhe can with no propriety be reckoned his wife; becauſe a main ingredient, her conſent, was wanting to the contract: and alſo there is another maxim of law, that no man ſhall take advantage of his own wrong; which the raviſher here would do,
Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/459
Ch. 15.
of Persons.
443
H h h 2
if
