iages have increased but 20 per
cent.

During this twenty years 79 per cent. of all divorces granted were for
adultery and desertion, and of those granted for the first-mentioned
cause only a trifle over one-half were for the fault of the man; while,
contrary to a widely-prevalent belief, the record shows that of the
decrees entered for that cause the proportion is greater in the country
districts than in our cities. In the same period the highest ratio of
divorce to marriage has been one to twenty-three, and the lowest one to
thirty-three, the average for the whole time being one to thirty-one;
but in Suffolk County, comprising the cities of Boston and Chelsea and
the towns of Winthrop and Revere, the average has been only one to
forty-one and nine-tenths. These statistics are indeed startling, and
may be easily used as a foundation for an argument that our laws
governing the matter are far too lenient, since the number of divorces
is so apparently excessive.

But on the other hand is it not as fair an inference from all the facts,
that beyond and deeper than any provisions of the law there is something
wrong in society itself; that we must look for the real root of the
trouble in the influences which are operating upon our social life as a
people? Our Judges who administer the law are learned, of great
experience in the matter of weighing evidence, careful and
conscientious. The laws are carefully framed to prevent collusion
between the parties, and especially to render it difficult to obtain a
divorce for the groundless desertion of the party seeking the
separation; in fact they are far in advance of the laws of many of our
sister states, and it has been truly said that the divorce laws of this
Commonwealth have kept pace with the improved understanding of the
condition of the people, and have been wisely framed to meet the many
causes which exist in modern life to break up the domestic relations.

There is not one of our statutory causes for divorce which could be
stricken out without a certainty of inflicting legal cruelty in the
future. Of all our divorces nearly seventy per cent, are upon petition
of the wife; and it can be safely said that nearly all will agree that
to compel a woman to submit to the cruelty and brutalities of a drunken
or profligate husband, is not only inflicting upon her legal cruelty,
but has an influence which extends beyond the individual and is powerful
for evil upon those who are to c