Consider now the position to-day. Amazing marriages have been made under
the urgency of war conditions, reckless marriages, entered into by those
who have known each other for a few days only before marrying for life.
A minister of religion stated quite recently, "I have had to marry many
couples who admitted to me that they knew little about each other. I
could do nothing. I was not allowed to refuse marriage."
There is no excuse now for these criminally hasty marriages; that they
should have been made is one of the tragedies caused by war. It would
prevent endless unhappiness and many divorces if marriages were to be
made conditional, except under very special reasons, on the woman and
the man having been engaged for a fixed and sufficiently long period. I
would recommend this reform to all ecclesiastical opposers of divorce.
Betrothal should be regarded as a much more important ceremony than is
common with us: here again is a way in which we might wisely copy older
civilizations, whose customs were more strictly planned to help men and
women in right living.
In the first year of the war the number of cases heard in the divorce
court rose from 289 to 520, which was the highest figure then on record.
Last season the number had sprung up to 775, while on the present term's
lists there are nearly 800 cases, showing the exceeding increase on the
pre-war rate. A large percentage of the marriages which are dissolved by
the court have been contracted since August, 1914. Petition after
petition is filed praying for the dissolution of marriages which should
never have been made. English law makes marriage far too easy. In
addition to this alarming increase in divorce, a greater number of
deeds of separation have been drawn up in the last two years than in
any preceding twenty-five; cases of bigamy have also become very
frequent, by women as well as by men.
A stage has now been reached when the cry for reform must be listened
to. Something has got to be done. The unhappiness and failure in many
marriages looms before us a colossal, an unprecedented and menacing
fact. Our eyes cannot any longer remain shut to the damning proofs which
confront us from so many sides.