or some time
limited by an erroneous view of the court that the age of the children
to which such provisions applied should be considered limited to
sixteen. The act of 1857 also transferred to the new court the powers
exercised by the common law courts in the action for criminal
conversation. It was made obligatory to join an alleged adulterer in the
suit, and damages (sec. 33) might be claimed against him, and he might
be ordered to pay the cost of the proceedings (sec. 34), the extent
depending upon the circumstances of each case.[1]

The act of 1857 in one respect went beyond a transfer of the powers
exercised by the ecclesiastical courts or the legislature. It provided
(sec. 21) that a wife deserted by her husband might apply to a
magistrate in petty sessions and obtain an order which had the effect of
protecting her earnings and property, and during the currency of such
order of protection a wife was to be in the same position as if she had
obtained an order for judicial separation. The effect of this section
appears to have been small; but the Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women)
Act 1895 has afforded a cheap and speedy remedy to all classes.

The framers of the act of 1857 were careful to avoid offending the
scruples of clergymen who disapproved of the complete dissolution of
marriage by a lay court. It was provided (secs. 57 and 58) that no
clergyman should be compelled to solemnize the marriage of any person
whose former marriage had been dissolved on the ground of his or her
adultery, but should permit any other clergyman to solemnize the
marriage in any church or chapel in which the parties were entitled to
be married. It is to be feared that this concession, ample as it
appears, has not allayed conscientious objections, which are perhaps
from their nature insuperable. The act made no provision as to the name
to be borne by a wife after a divorce; and this omission led to
litigation in the case of a peer's wife, in _Cowley_ v. _Cowley_, in
which Lady Cowley was allowed to retain her status.

_Modifications of the Act of 1857._--Subsequent legislation has made
good many of the defects of the act of 1857. In 1859 power was given to
the court, after a decree of dissolution or of nullity of marriage, to
inquire into the existence of ante- and post-nuptial settlements, and to
make orders with respect to the property settled either for the benefit
of children of the marriage or their parents; and a subsequent ac