Page:North American Review 1889-12 Vol 149 Iss 397.pdf/1

 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CCCXCVIL.

DECEMBER, 1889.

THE QUESTION OF DIVORCE.

BY THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, THE HON. JOSEPH P. BRADLEY, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND SENETOR JOSEPH N. DOLPH.

I UNDERTAKE, though not without misgiving, to offer answers to your four questions.* For I incline to think that the future of America is of greater importance to Christendom at large than that of any other country; that that future, in its highest features, vitally depends upon the incidents of marriage ; and that no country has ever been so directly challenged as America now is to choose its course definitively with reference to one, if not more than one, of the very greatest of those incidents.

The solidity and health of the social body depend upon the soundness of its unit. That unit is the family; and the hinge of the family is to be found in the great and profound institution of marriage. It might be too much to say that a good system of marriage law, and of the practice appertaining to it, of itself insures the well-being of a community. But I cannot doubt that the converse is true; and that, if the relations of husband and wife are wrongly comprehended in what most belongs to them, either as to law or as to conduct, no nation can rise to the fulfil-

The questions submitted as a basis for the discussion of the subject of Divorce, begun in the November number of THE REVIEW, are reprinted for the convenience of the reader. They are as follows: 1. Do you believe in the principle of divorce under any circumstances? 2. Ought divorced people to be allowed to marry under any circumstances ? 3. What is the effect of divorce on the integrity of the family ? 4. Does the absolute prohibition of divorce where it exists contribute to the moral purity of society ?

VOL.

CXLIX.—NO.

397.

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