ompelling force in the direction of
legitimating free unions. But if the absence of the formal marriage bond
constituted a real and intrinsic disadvantage to women in sexual relations
they would not show themselves so increasingly ready to dispense with it.
And, as a matter of fact, those who are intimately acquainted with the
facts declare that the absence of formal marriage tends to give increased
consideration to women and is even favorable to fidelity and to the
prolongation of the union. This seems to be true as regards people of the
most different social classes and even of different races. It is probably
based on fundamental psychological facts, for the sense of compulsion
always tends to produce a movement of exasperation and revolt. We are not
here concerned with the question as to how far formal marriage also is
based on natural facts; that is a question which will come up for
discussion at a later stage.

The advantage for women of free sexual unions over compulsory
marriage is well recognized in the case of the working classes of
London, among whom sexual relationships before marriage are not
unusual, and are indulgently regarded. It is, for instance,
clearly asserted in the monumental work of C. Booth, _Life and
Labour of the People_. "It is even said of rough laborers," we
read, for instance, in the final volume of this work (p. 41),
"that they behave best if not married to the woman with whom they
live." The evidence on this point is often the more impressive
because brought forward by people who are very far indeed from
being anxious to base any general conclusions on it. Thus in the
same volume a clergyman is quoted as saying: "These people manage
to live together fairly peaceably so long as they are not
married, but if they marry it always seems to lead to blows and
rows."

It may be said that in such a case we witness not so much the
operation of a natural law as the influences of a great centre of
civilization exerting its moralizing effects even on those who
stand outside the legally recognized institution of marriage.
That contention may, however, be thrust aside. We find exactly
the same tendency in Jamaica where the population is largely
colored, and the stress of a high civilization can scarcely be
said to exist. Legal marriage is here discarded to an even
greater extent than in London, for little c