al performing the functions assigned to the king's proctor
in England cannot but have great influence on the number of
applications for divorce, as well as on their results. (ST H.)

UNITED STATES

According to American practice, divorce is the termination by proper
legal authority, sometimes legislatively but usually judicially, of a
marriage which up to the time of the decree was legal and binding. It is
to be distinguished from a decree of nullity of marriage, which is
simply a legal determination that no legal marriage has ever existed
between the two parties. It is also to be distinguished from a decree of
separation, which permits or commands the parties to live apart, but
does not completely and for all purposes sever the marriage tie. The
matrimonial law of England, as at the time of the declaration of
independence, forms part of the common law of the United States. But as
no ecclesiastical courts have ever existed there, the law must be
considered to have been inoperative. There is no Federal jurisdiction in
divorce, and it is a question for the law of each separate state; and
though it is competent to Congress to authorize divorces in the
Territories, still it appears that this subject like others is usually
left to the territorial legislature. In the different states, and in
England, divorces were at first granted by the legislatures, whether
directly or by granting special authority to the tribunals to deal with
particular cases. This practice fell into general disrepute, and by the
constitution of some states such divorces are expressly prohibited.

Upon the subject of divorce in the United States, and, to some extent,
in foreign countries, a careful investigation was made by the American
Bureau of Labour, and its report covered the years 1867 to 1886; a
further report for the period 1887 to 1906 has also been published by
the Federal Census Bureau. The number of divorces was in 1886 over
25,000, and in 1906 was over 72,000, about double the number reported
for that year from all the rest of the Christian world. As divorce
presupposes a legal marriage, the amount of divorce, or the
divorce-rate, is best stated as the ratio between the number of divorces
decreed during a year and the number of subsisting marriages or married
couples. The usual basis is 100,000 married couples. In 1898-1902 the
divorce-rate was 200 divorces (400 people) to 100,000 married couples.
This is equivalent to more than o