lived with her lover until pregnant and then married
him; she was always strictly faithful to him while living with
him, but if no pregnancy occurred the couple might decide that
they were not meant for each other, and break off relations. The
result was that for a long period of years no illegitimate
children were born, and few marriages were childless. But when
the Portland stone trade was developed, the workmen imported from
London took advantage of the "island custom," but refused to
fulfil the obligation of marriage when pregnancy occurred. The
custom consequently fell into disuse (see, e.g., translator's
note to Bloch's _Sexual Life of Our Time_, p. 237, and the
quotation there given from Hutchins, _History and Antiquities of
Dorset_, vol. ii, p. 820).

It is, however, by no means only in rural districts, but in great
cities also that marriages are at the outset free unions. Thus in
Paris Despres stated more than thirty years ago (_La Prostitution
a Paris_, p. 137) that in an average arrondissement nine out of
ten legal marriages are the consolidation of a free union;
though, while that was an average, in a few arrondissements it
was only three out of ten. Much the same conditions prevail in
Paris to-day; at least half the marriages, it is stated, are of
this kind.

In Teutonic lands the custom of free unions is very ancient and
well-established. Thus in Sweden, Ellen Key states (_Liebe und
Ehe_, p. 123), the majority of the population begin married life
in this way. The arrangement is found to be beneficial, and
"marital fidelity is as great as pre-marital freedom is
unbounded." In Denmark, also, a large number of children are
conceived before the unions of the parents are legalized (Rubin
and Westergaard, quoted by Gaedeken, _Archives d'Anthropologie
Criminelle_, Feb. 15, 1909).

In Germany not only is the proportion of illegitimate births very
high, since in Berlin it is 17 per cent., and in some towns very
much higher, but ante-nuptial conceptions take place in nearly
half the marriages, and sometimes in the majority. Thus in Berlin
more than 40 per cent, of all legitimate firstborn children are
conceived before marriage, while in some rural provinces (where
the proportion of illegitimate births is lower) the percentage of
marriages following ante-nuptial c