DIVORCE DOBBERAN. 



697 



lodged abroad without good reason, or frequented 

 theatres and shows, her husband forbidding, or was 

 aiding and abetting in plots against the state, or dealt 

 falsely, or offered blows. The wife had equivalent 

 rights hi this respect, for she could procure a divorce 

 on similar charges against her husband. He could 

 be married again immediately ; she, not within a 

 year. 



The facility of divorce continued, without restric- 

 tion, under the Roman emperors, notwithstanding the 

 doctrine promulgated on the subject in the New Tes- 

 tament ; but, as the modern nations of Europe 

 emerged from the ruins of the Roman empire, they 

 adopted the doctrine of the New Testament (Matt. 

 xix.), " what God hath joined together, let not man 

 put asunder." Marriage, under the Roman church, 

 instead of a civil contract, came to be considered a 

 sacrament of the church, and subject to the ecclesi- 

 astical jurisdiction, and so it is, at this time, hi Eng- 

 land ; and the canonists founded upon this text the 

 doctrine of the unlawfulness of dissolving tlu's con- 

 tract, the dissolution of which they considered to be 

 a violation of a sacred institution. If parties were 

 once legally married, they could not be unmarried, 

 though they might be separated. Bqt, though 'mar- 

 riage was thus held to be a sacrament, still the cere- 

 mony of union might pass between those who could 

 not lawfully be joined in " holy " wedlock, in which 

 case the marriage might be annulled, or rather de- 

 clared, by the competent tribunals, to have been null 

 from the first. Divorces a vinculo are, accordingly, 

 decreed by the ecclesiastical courts in England, for 

 prior contract, impotency, too near an affinity, or 

 consanguinity, and other causes, existing at the tune 

 of the marriage, but not for any subsequent cause. 

 For any cause whatever, arising after the marriage, 

 the ecclesiastical courts can only decree divorce a 

 ntensa et thcro, which does not leave either of the 

 parties at liberty to marry again. To obtain a drcarc^li 

 a vinculo matrimonii, for any cau^ whatever, arising 

 after the marriage of the partie^b whose unionno 

 legal impediment existed at the time of Hie marriage, 

 the omnipotence^ V&J& is,jcalled, of parliament, must 

 be resorted to. A -divorce in England,' therefore, 

 can only be got by act of parfement, a law made v o 

 re nata, and is attended byVery heavy expenses. 

 On the other hand, the la^nof \cptland sanctions a 

 divorce, without the iiitertereVice'of parliament. M;ir- 

 riage, here, is held to be only a civil" rontr;;r 

 may be dissolved by the civil law, leayin 

 at freedom to intermarry with othefs. 

 or wilful desertion, by the Scottish law, 

 on which married persons may apply for a 

 The action of divorce is earned on before the com- 

 missaries of Edinburgh. 



In the United States of America, marriage, thdu 

 it may be celebrated before clergymen as well ' 

 civil magistrates, is considered to be a civil contract. 

 The causes of divorce, and the facility or difficulty 

 of obtaining it, are by no means the same in the se- 

 veral states ; and the diversity in this respect is so 

 great, that instances have heretofore not been unfre- 

 quent, of one of the parties removing into a neigh- 

 bouring state, for the express purpose of obtaining a 

 divorce a vinculo. The more general causes of such 

 a divorce are, former marriage, physical incapacity, 

 or fraudulent contract, according to the expression 

 in the Connecticut law, to include these and other 

 causes ; consanguinity ; and the New York code par- 

 ticularly enumerates idiocy and insanity, and the cir- 

 cumstance of either party being under the age of 

 consent. Adultery is also a cause of divorce a vin- 

 culo ; but the laws of borne of the states prohibit the 

 guilty party from marrying again. If the husband or 

 wife is absent seven years, or, by the laws of some of 



the states, three years, and not heard from, the other 

 is at liberty to marry again ; and in some states, if 

 the husband desert the wife, and make no provision 

 for her support during three years, being able to 

 make such provision, the wife can obtain a divorce. 

 Extreme cruelty in either party is also, generally, a 

 cause of divorce, either a vinculo or a mensa. In 

 many of the states, applications to the legislature for 

 divorce, in cases not provided for by the statutes, are 

 very frequent. In New York and New Jersey, di- 

 vorce is a subject of chancery jurisdiction from which, 

 as in other cases, questions of law may be referred 

 to a jury for trial. But, in most of the states, the 

 courts of law have cognizance of divorce. The laws 

 prescribe the provision to be made for the wife in 

 case of divorce, confiding to the courts, however, 

 some degree of discretion in fixing the amount of 

 alimony. 



DJEBEL is an Arabian word, signifying moun- 

 tain, as Djebel-el-Mousa, the mountain of Moses ; 

 Djebel-el-Tarik (Gibraltar), the mountain of Tarik. 



DJEZZAR, ACHMET, pacha of Acre, who checked 

 the victorious career of Bonaparte in Egypt and 

 Syria, was bom in Bosnia, and is said to have sold 

 himself as a slave to Ali Bey, in Egypt. There he 

 ingratiated himself with his master to such a degree, 

 that he rose from the- low state of a mameluke to that 

 of governor of Cairo. For his future success, he was 

 not less indebted to his faithlessnaes. and ingratitude, 

 than to his courage and talentsJT Asjto&ia of Acre, 

 he rendered himself so formidaole to thCT^bels, that 

 he was raised to the dignite of a pacha o^three tails. 

 Differences soon aros^jffween him and!' the Porte, 

 which is jealous of every pacha of spirit and enter- 

 prise. Obeying tfie commands received frajB^on- 

 stantinople no farther than they coincide$n^h his 

 own plans, he maintained himself by forcejfand cun- 

 ning. x -On Bonaparte's invasion of Syriaf in 1799, 

 he brofce out inter the jmoa ; ungovernable fury, that 

 Christians from Europe aheitla dare to attempt the 

 conquest of his province. Assisted by the French 

 engineer, Philippeaux, who conducted the defence 

 with great ability, and by Sir Sidney Smith, who 

 supported, him with several British men-of-war, 

 1 ) jezzalffcould' bbagf of repelling the man before whom 

 liurope trembled. He afierwards had several bloody 

 struggles swith the grand-vizier and the pacha of 

 Jaffa, and died in 1804. He received the name of 

 DJczzar (butcher) from his bloodthirsty disposition. 

 D JIDDA. See Jidda.' 



DNIEPER, or DNEPER, or NIEPER (anciently, 

 orysthenes) ; a river of Russia, which rises in the 

 esfpart of the government of Tver, passes by 

 lolensk, Mogilev, Kiev, Kkaterinoslav, &c., and 

 is into the Black sea, near^Otchakov. It begins 

 'tip be navigable a little above^molensk. Notwith- 

 Stianding the course of this river is so extensive, its 

 navigation is only once interrupted by a series of 

 cataracts, which commence about 200 miles from its 

 mduth, and continue thirty or forty miles; these, 

 however, are not very dangerous, and may be passed 

 in the spring by loaded barks. Length, 1000 miles. 

 The lower part of the river has been the theatre 

 of many conflicts between the Russians and Turks. 



DNIESTER, or DNIESTR (the ancient Tyros or 

 Danaster); a large river of Europe, which has its 

 source in a lake in the Carpathian mountains, in 

 Austrian Galicia, and empties itself into the Black 

 sea, between Ovidiopol and Akerman, after a course 

 of between 500 and 600 miles, mostly through Rus- 

 sia, the government of which has done much towards 

 improving its navigation. 



DOBBERAN; a castle and borough (210 houses 

 and 1400 inhabitants), under the jurisdiction of a 

 bailiff', between two and three miles from the Baltic. 



