LAW AND JUSTICE 325 



grounds of divorce, (a) desertion for three years, (b) cruelty, (c) incurable insanity, (d) 

 habitual drunkenness, (e) imprisonment under commuted death sentence. A serious 

 factor in the situation has been the large number of judicial separations rising in one 

 year to over 7000 granted by magistrates under the Married Women's (Protection) 

 Act. The commissioners recommend the entire abolition of this jurisdiction. 



Three distinguished members of the commission, the Archbishop of York, Sir William 

 Anson and Sir Lewis Dibdin, presented a minority report, dissenting strongly, in particu- 

 lar, from any enlargement of the existing grounds of divorce. Adultery alone they 

 think ought to constitute a ground for dissolution, and they point to America as an object 

 lesson, where facilities of divorce have so " cheapened "marriage that there are now in 

 the states 86 divorces to every 100,000 inhabitants! This danger of " cheapening " 

 marriage by facilitating divorce is what emerges most strikingly from the whole contro- 

 versy. It is a danger not confined to the United Kingdom. Nearly all foreign nations 

 recognize it (see B urge, Colonial and Foreign Law, 2nded., Vol. iii), not necessarily on 

 the sacramental view of marriage but for the sound practical reason that marriage forms 

 the basis of family life. The state is founded on the "hearthstone." If the marriage 

 bond is to be relaxed or dissolved, it ought only to be for reasons which make the 

 married life of the spouses intolerable or defeat the ends of marriage. 



Western Australia, legislating on lines similar to those of New South Wales and Vic- 

 toria, has provided Tor divorce of either husband or wife in case of adultery or desertion 

 for five years, or in case either is an habitual drunkard, or in case of imprisonment or 

 confinement in a lunatic asylum for certain specified periods. Panama has also passed a 

 law authorising divorce a vinculo, and making mutual consent with certain qualifications 

 a ground, and also habitual adultery on the husband's part. 



A very difficult question of the respective jurisdiction of state and church in relation 

 to marriage arose in the English case of Thompson v. Dibdin (1912; A. .533), where a 

 man had married his deceased wife's sister and the clergyman of their parish church re- 

 pelled them from holy communion as " persons of notorious evil life." The House of 

 Lords held that since the passing of the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriage Act 1907, it 

 was impossible so to brand persons whose union was directly sanctioned by the Act. 

 But the attitude of a very large number of Churchmen is still summed up in the Arch- 

 ' bishop of York's words "No trespassing on the spiritual discipline of the Church." 



On the whole the proportion of divorces to the sum total of married life is remarkably 

 small among the European nations. The most dangerous period for matrimonial happi- 

 ness is from 10 to 20 years after marriage; next to thafe&j to 10 years after. As the age 

 for marriage grows later the ratio of divorce decreases. Romance must reckon with this 

 fact as best it can. A significant feature in Germany is the growing number of divorces 

 granted on the ground of mutual agreement. Children are evidently the best preven- 

 tive of divorce. In more than half the cases in England there were no children: and the 

 more the children the fewer the divorces. Husbands come for a dissolution of marriage 

 much more frequently than wives. On the other hand petitions for judicial separation 

 and restitution of conjugal rights are nearly all presented by wives. Magisterial separa- 

 tions in England under -the Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women's) Act 1895, s. 5, 

 have declined to 4819 even then a large number. 



Public Health. For a long time past now, ever since Disraeli uttered his famous 

 epigram' sanitas sanitatum omnia sanitas,' states and municipalities have been busy- 

 ing themselves with questions of health, and still are. A decent environment for every 

 citizen is now a postulate of political science. Pure water, light open spaces, proper 

 drainage much has been accomplished in these matters but much remains to be done. 

 Workers' dwellings for instance 1 closely associated with the tuberculosis question 

 have been too long neglected in England, though both political parties are committed 

 to deal with the question. Here as in so many other matters New Zealand has been 

 leading. In the Workers' Dwellings Act of 1910 the legislature of New Zealand has 

 provided for the setting aside of land as sites for workers' dwellings, and for the erection, 



1 See E. B. xiii, 814 et seq., "Housing." 



