Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/214

204 him. This brave and noble woman, uncrushable by tyranny and invulnerable to the malice which the law permitted to be inflicted upon her, was the chief means of obtaining a Divorce Court in England. Until eight or ten years ago none but Earls, Dukes, etc., could have such matrimonial grievances remedied. The House of Peers alone could dissolve marriage. Mrs. Norton's letter to the Queen upon this point, showed in vivid colors that while a woman was holding the reins of government, her female subjects were laboring under laws no better than such as regulate the relations of the negro and his white master. A more powerful pamphlet was, perhaps, never penned by man or woman. It had a startling influence not, perhaps, on the Queen, who does not trouble herself about such matters, but upon ministers, legislators, men who have voice and power in the nation. The Divorce Court is now in full operation. Full divorce, a vinculo, in only granted where capital crime is proved, when either party can marry again. Separation (a mensa et thoro) is granted for desertion, cruelty, and various other causes.

The jurisdiction of this court does not extend to Ireland, and as yet there is no dissolution of Irish marriages, even though the husband has not seen his wife for years. Even if the wife has earned, or inherited, a fortune during his absence, the recreant husband can return and possess himself of whatever is hers. In fine, a wife has no legal existence separate from her husband. By the marriage service the husband fictitiously endows the wife "with all his worldly goods." But legally, and in reality, he becomes master of hers. The French laws are the best in this respect, for there is always a separate contract as regards property, in which the wife has equal advantages.

In England, marriages are only legal when performed in a duly-registered church by any minister, subsequent to publication of banns or license, obtained from Doctors' Commons, or before a duly authorized registrar in his office. But the greater part of marriages take place in church, Protestants still adhering to the religious ceremony. As there is no point which so intimately and deeply concerns the well-being of the great human family as marriage, so there is scarcely any other over which Legislatures have so bungled and blundered, and made such a disastrous "pot-pourrie." Marriage being a Divine ordination, its fulfilment should be left free, and untrammelled by a score of contradictory laws and vexatious regulations. It should not be made valid on one side a streamlet, and void on the other; holy and legitimate if entered into before twelve o'clock in the day, infamous and illegal if contracted at a later hour; respectable and decent if the building has been duly registered and the clergyman ordained, disgraceful and damning if the registration and ordination have not been quite en règle; according to Lord Ardwick's Marriage Act, a union