, but its existence is a blot on the fair
fame of English justice, and also of English morality, that a husband's
infidelity should be so lightly regarded. Let us hope the day is not far
off when the conditions of divorce will be exactly the same for both
parties.

The opinion is almost universally held nowadays that a dissolution of
marriage should be obtainable if either party be a confirmed drunkard,
or a lunatic, or be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. How
degrading it is to the best instincts of our sex that a woman can get a
decree of nullity of marriage by proving certain physical disabilities
on the part of the husband, which in no way affect her happiness,
health, or self-respect, yet can only obtain the partial relief of
separation if her husband be a drunkard, an adulterer, and a
criminal--so long as she cannot additionally prove cruelty or desertion!
It is also an injustice that divorce should be so expensive that only
people with money or the very poor (by means of proceedings _in forma
pauperis_) can afford it.

* * *

Perhaps the most necessary reform of all is that the marriage of the
mentally and physically unfit be legally prevented, or rather that they
should be prevented from having children, which is all that really
matters. It would be perfectly feasible to ensure the sterilisation of
the unfit, though a law to this effect would require the most delicate
handling, and one can hardly imagine a parliament of men blundering
through it with any degree of success. Perhaps it may come to pass in
the day when we have the ideal Government that represents both sexes and
all classes. A health certificate signed by doctors in the service of
the State should certainly be compulsory before any marriage could be
ratified. When cancer, tubercle, insanity, and all the attendant ills of
alcoholism and of riotous living have infected every family in the land,
our far-seeing lawgivers may begin to realise the necessity for some
restriction of this kind. At present, the liberty of the subject is
preserved at too heavy a cost to the race.

Another much-needed reform is that children born out of wedlock should
be legitimised by subsequent marriage of the parents, as in many other
countries. This would hurt no one, could not possibly encourage vice,
and would enable many grievous wrongs to be righted. The present
regulation is unreasonable in the extreme.

England is almost the only European country