Considerable difficulty has arisen out of the conflict between the law of Eng land and Scotland, in consequence of marriages celebrated in England having been dissolved by judicial sentence in Scotland. Some of the cases are given in Burge's Commentaries, Sce. i. G68, &c The sentence of separation relieves the husband of his responsibility for his wife's debts contracted after the sentence is pronounced, or, in case of his wife's adultery, contracted after the discovery of the adultery and the consequent sepa ration; for if no separation takes place, or if the husband abandons his usual re sidence to his wife and her paramour, he will be liable to debts contracted by her with tradesmen who are ignorant of the facts. By the common law, also, a hus band is not liable for the debts of his wife contracted after she has quitted his house without sufficient cause, and he has given particular notice to the tradesmen that he will not pay her debts. Nor is he liable for debts contracted while she is living in open adultery. If the separa tion is obtained by the wife on account of the cruelty or adultery of her husband, the spiritual court compels him to main tain her (if her separate property will not enable her to live according to her rank in life) by requiring him to make her an allowance proportionate to his means. [Ammony.] Though a woman cannot take by direct grant from her husband, she can take by a grant made by her husband to trustees for her benefit. She can also acqaire lands by descent and by purchase [Pun CHASE].
By the common law the husband ac quires all the personal property which the wife has at the time of the marriage, and also all that accrues to her during the marriage. He also acquires all her chattels real or leasehold interests ; yet if a settlement has not been made on her ex pressly in consideration of her fortune, those portions of her personal property which consist of securities for money or beneficial contracts, and her chattels real, survive to herself, if the securities have not been realised and the chattels real have not been aliened, during his life by her husband : a marriage settlement does not deprive her of this right with regard to things in action acquired subsequently to the execution of the settlement, unless it expressly reserves to the husband future as well as present personalty. If a hus band requires the mtervention of a court of equity for the purpose of reducing into possession his wife's property, the court will require him to make on her a settlement proportionate to the benefit which he derives. Usually one half of the fund is settled upon the wife and children, but the court takes all the circumstances into consideration ; espe cially whether any settlement already exists : and it will not grant its aid to the wife who demands a settlement, if she is the born subject of a state which gives the whole property of the wife to the hus band. The adultery of the wife deprives
her of her equity (unless she has been a ward of court married without the con sent of the court); but her delinquency will not induce the court to vest the whole of her property in her husband because he does not maintain her. The court will secure the property for the benefit of the survivor and the children. On the other band, in case of the cruelty of the husband, or his desertion of his wife, the court will award to her and her children not only the whole principal, but the interest of the property in question.
The husband is entitled during his life to the profits of his wife's freehold estates of which she is seised at the time of marriage or during the coverture. By the common law a husband might aliene his wife's real estate by feoffment or fine, or lease it for her life or that of the tenant, and she was left to her re medy if she survived him, or her heir at law had his remedy if the husband sur vived: if they neglected that remedy, the alienation by the husband was good ; but by the 32nd Henry VIII. c. 28, the wife or her heir may enter and defeat the hus band's act. By that statute the lease of lands held by a man in right of his wife, or jointly with her, is good against husband and wife if executed by both ; the lease may be for years or for life, but it must relate to land usually leased, it must not be by anticipation or in consideration of a fine ; it must reserve a fair yearly rent to the husband and wife and heirs of the wife; and the husband is restricted from aliening or discharging the rent for a longer term than his own life. If how ever the wife receives rent after her hus band's death upon any lease of her estate improperly granted by him, she confirms that lease. A wife's copyhold estates are forfeited to the lord by any such acts of her husband as are ruinous to the estate (e.g. waste), as destroy the tenure (e.g. an attempt to convert it into a freehold ), or otherwise deprive the lord of his rights, as a positive refusal to pay rent or per form service. But courts of equity will relieve the tenant when the forfeiture is not wilful or can he compensated. The enfranchisement of the wife's copyhold estate by the husband does not alter the mode of descent, but the estate will go to the wife's and not to the husband's heirs. Husband and wife to whom freehold or copyhold lands are given or devised take in entireties, and not as joint tenants ; they are jointly seised, but neither can aliene without the consent of the other, and the lands will belong to the survivor.