Marred Marriages.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7973, 9 November 1905, Page 2

Marred Marriages.

11l iin article on "Marred Marriag--1 es," ill- London Daily Mail status - that when divorce was first rtniterul • comparatively simple in Kngland by - the creation ofulie Divorce Court, i» - 1808, tlie total nmnbi'r o'i petitions was only 320, and for some years did not show any marked lendency to increase. Within recent time, however, it has moved on the whole steadily upwards, and the figure for ■ 1003, the latest dale for which official statistics are available was 963. Thus it lias almost trebled, though in. the period the population has only risen by two-thirds. The increase in the number of divorces in . Kngland, if marked, is ii when companii with the increase in the United Slates, where the fatal facility of divorce is doing much to fii'cak up tit.' family life and to Weaken the position of the pure-born American. William Morris hoped that marriage Would become "an association terminable at the needs of either party." Another distinguished socialist has dcclarul it "intolerable that Church or society should in any official form interfere Willi lovers." Some working men, it is to be feared, are acting upon the doctrines of these new evangelists, and the decline in the birth-rale in our country, which is said to be the gveatisi among the working men of the better class, who are usually addicted to socialist theories, is the mellanclioly conscience. "Nature inevitI ably punishes the imach of any of [her laws; where the breach is Rival 'tiff punishment is great and terrible,' 1 it has been said, anil Ills punisiijiicnl of the clam or State that weakens ihc inairiagc tie is eventual extinction. It is a significant fact divorces are more uncommon where marriages have been celebrated wilh religious riles lhan where they have taken place in registry offices. The same has been noted in other countries than lOngland. Religion imposes rent minis upon (lie passions in (lie higher and deeper interests of the face, anil men and women who acknowledge these restraints' will never frivolously or for light reasons break up the home. That there are adequate reasons for divorce Tew .unbiassed thinkers will deny, and some of these reasons ale no I sufficiently rccognisid hv law. Thai a woman should be tied foi life to a drunkard or criminal is a terrible fate; yet, after all, it in in (lie woman's inheres ( that divorce is made difficult. She is the weaker partner in the relationship, and she. suffers most by each relaxation of the tie. She is generally dependent upon the earnings of the husband, and were, she liable lo be east adrift as the result of a passing whim, the repose the confidence, and security essential to happy marriages would j n Mr Lucky's words, be falallv' impaired, and tlie family, "t) u -. special seed-pint and condition of the lc sf, virtues of the community," would van- | isli, to he replaced by the dismal sur- ; ly'.inil ns of Hie municipal ci\c!i.'. t