21; see also _Marshall_ v. _Marshall_, 5 P. D. 19) of the
court of chancery to maintain the claim of good faith in this as in
other cases, and restrained a petitioner from suing in the
ecclesiastical court contrary to his covenant. Thereafter these deeds
became common, and no doubt often afford a solution of matrimonial
difficulties of very great value. When the courts of the country became
united under the Judicature Acts, it became practicable to set up in the
divorce division a separation deed in answer to a suit for restitution
of conjugal rights without the necessity of recourse to any other
tribunal.

_Statistics._--The statistics of divorce in England have for some
years been regularly published in the volumes of judicial statistics
published annually by the Home Office.

The number of petitions for divorce (including in the term both
divorce _a mensa et thoro_ and divorce _a vinculo_) for the years from
1858 to 1905 inclusive are as follows:--

1858 326 | 1874 469 | 1890 644
1859 291 | 1875 451 | 1891 632
1860 272 | 1876 536 | 1892 629
1861 236 | 1877 551 | 1893 645
1862 248 | 1878 632 | 1894 652
1863 298 | 1879 555 | 1895 683
1864 297 | 1880 615 | 1896 772
1865 284 | 1881 589 | 1897 781
1866 279 | 1882 481 | 1898 750
1867 294 | 1883 561 | 1899 727
1868 303 | 1884 647 | 1900 698
1869 351 | 1885 541 | 1901 848
1870 351 | 1886 708 | 1902 987
1871 384 | 1887 662 | 1903 914
1872 374 | 1888 680 | 1904 822
1873 416 | 1889 654 | 1905 844

It is probably impossible to account for the variations which the
above table discloses. It was no doubt natural that the year
immediately succeeding the passing of the act which originated
facilities for divorces _a vinculo_ should exhibit a larger number of
divorces than its successors for a considerable period. But there does
not appear to be any adequate cause for the comparative increase which
seems to have prevailed in the decade between 1878 and 1888, unless it
be found in the increase of marriages which culminated in 1873 and
1883, falling after each of those years. The number of marriages again