The following is a striking quotation from a
pamphlet written on behalf of this Union by Mr. E. S. P. Haynes, a
distinguished expert.
"But our law of divorce is only one example among many of our
hide-bound attachment to ancient abuses. It is of the utmost
importance to realize that Divorce Law Reform will merely bring our
jurisprudence up to the level of the modern enlightened State. It
involves no revolutionary disturbance of anything but our crusted
ignorance of how modern civilization works outside England. It sets
out to place the family on a firmer basis, to regulate the marriage
contract on equitable lines, and to improve the chances of the
future generation in a country where deserted wives fill the
work-houses and forty thousand illegitimate children are born every
year."
In Germany, which we are always being asked to imitate in non-essentials
by the more stupid kind of Imperialist--the kind which only very strong
empires can survive--the law of divorce is vastly superior to ours.
There is no such thing as judicial separation, which "is rightly
condemned as being contrary to public policy." Further, as Mr. Haynes
points out, "In Germany a male cannot marry under twenty-one or a female
under eighteen, whether parental consent is available or not. In England
a man may and not infrequently does cut his wife and family out of his
will; in Germany the rights of wife and children are properly
safeguarded by limiting this liberty of disposition.
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