[674] In his enlightening criticism of our matrimonial laws Cook, "The Mar. Cel. in the U. S.," Atlantic, LXI, 688, has suggested the division of the county into districts for the appointment of registrars.
[675] In England the registration of births and deaths in the district is intrusted to a separate registrar: Compare the details of the British system as presented in chap. x, sec. iii.
By the law of Massachusetts towns of more than 2,000 inhabitants may choose a separate registrar to record and license, but not to celebrate, marriages: see chap, xvi, sec. i, c).
[676] Cf. Richberg, Incongruity of the Divorce Laws, 65 ff.
[677] "Age of consent laws, in their usual acceptation, refer to the crime of rape, and designate the age at which a young girl may legally consent to carnal relations with the other sex. Statutes pertaining to rape provide, in varying phrase, for the punishment of 'whoever ravishes and carnally knows a female by force and against her will,' at any age; and also penalties for whoever unlawfully and carnally knows a female child, with or without consent, under a given age."—Powell, in Arena, XI, 192.
[678] "In the New York senate, in 1890, a bill was introduced to lower the age of consent from sixteen to fourteen years. It was reported favorably by the senate judiciary committee, but vigorous protests against the proposed retrograde legislation were promptly sent to Albany by the friends of purity, and the disreputable scheme was defeated. It was understood to have originated with Rochester attorneys who sought thus to provide a way of escape for a client, a well-to-do debauchee guilty of despoiling a young girl under the legally protected age of sixteen." A similar attempt, in the house, in 1892, in the interest of the New York brothel-keepers, was barely defeated by calling for the yeas and nays. "In the Kansas senate, in 1889, a bill was introduced and passed to lower the age ... from eighteen to twelve years. The house was flooded with earnest protests, and its judiciary committee reported adversely the disgraceful senate bill."—Powell, loc. cit., 194, 195.
[679] Aaron M. Powell, editor of the Philanthropist, in the Arena (1895), XI, 192-94. The Arena was the principal medium of publication for the reformers: see the symposium by Powell, Gardener, and others, "The Shame of America," Arena, XI, 192-215; the symposium by Gardener, Robinson, and others, ibid., XIII, 209-25; the symposium by Leach and Campbell, ibid., XII, 282-88; Smith, "Age of Consent in Canada," ibid., XIII, 81-91; and especially Gardener, "A Battle for Sound Morality," ibid., XIII, 353-71; XIV, 1-32, 205-20, 401-19. Cf. Flower, "Wellsprings of Immorality," ibid., XII, 337-52.
[680] Gardener, "A Battle for Sound Morality," Arena, XIII, 354, 355.
[681] Powell, in Arena, XI, 195; cf. Gardener, ibid., XIII, 358.
[682] Gen. Laws of R. I. (1896), 999.