Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/375

 time, and as a consequence of this demographic movement, the proportion of free unions has considerably increased.

The frequency of divorces in 1851-55 being 100, what has it become during the following years?

France. Saxony. Belgium. Holland. Sweden. Separations. Divorces. Divorces. Divorces. Divorces. 1851-55   100          100        100         100         100 1856-60    128           83        140         100          98 1861-65    150           75        160         112         109 1866-70    190           72        190         115         113 1871-75    163           80        280         139         132 1876-80    225          105        420         151         161

A. Bertillon calculated this proportion for Paris at about a tenth. But these results are simply the logical continuation of the evolution of marriage. It is in the sense of an ever-increasing individual liberty, especially for woman, that this evolution is being effected. Between men and women the conjugal relations have at first been nearly everywhere from masters to slaves; then marital despotism became slowly attenuated, and at Rome, for example, where the gradual metamorphosis may be traced during a long historic period, the power of the paterfamilias, which at first had no limit, at length became curbed; the personality of the woman was more and more accentuated, and the rigid marriage of the first centuries of the Republic was replaced under the Empire by a sort of free union. Doubtless this movement necessarily retrograded under the influence of Christianity; but, as always happens in the logic of things, it has, nevertheless, resumed its course; it will become more and more evident, and will surely pass the point at which it stopped in imperial Rome.

Monogamic marriage will continue to subsist; it is the last-comer, and much the most worthy, and besides, the balance of the sexes makes it almost a necessity; but it will have more and more equality in it, and less and less of legal restraint. On this point I am glad to find myself in