Blackstone explains it all for you

After years of reading about him, let's finally read him. Blackstone, that is, and his famous Commentaries On The Laws Of England, available for free on the internet. There's a lot here, but it goes down easy. Let me give just one example.

Book I, Chapter 15 deals with the relationship of the husband and wife. Blackstone makes it clear marriage is simply a civil contract--that the deeper side is left to the Church. Most of Blackstone's discussion is about what makes a marriage contract legitimate. Then he discusses divorce.

Finally, he gets to one of his more famous statements: "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law." He goes on to explain: "the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing." This explains, for instance, why one can't testify against a spouse: "nemo tenetur seipsum accusare" [no one is bound to accuse himself].

He goes over what it all means, including the exceptions to the rule, then finishes with (to me, anyway) a surprise: "These are the chief legal effects of marriage during the coverture; upon which we may observe, that even the disabilities, which the wife lies under, are for the most part intended for her protection and benefit. So great a favorite is the female sex of the laws of England." Who would have guessed?