time, and as a consequence of this demographic movement, the proportion of free unions has considerably increased.
Increase of Divorces.[1]
The frequency of divorces in 1851-55 being 100, what has it become during the following years?
France. Saxony. Belgium. Holland. Sweden.
Separations. Divorces. Divorces. Divorces. Divorces.
1851-55 100 100 100 100 100
1856-60 128 83 140 100 98
1861-65 150 75 160 112 109
1866-70 190 72 190 115 113
1871-75 163 80 280 139 132
1876-80 225 105 420 151 161
A. Bertillon calculated this proportion for Paris at about a tenth. But these results are simply the logical continuation of the evolution of marriage. It is in the sense of an ever-increasing individual liberty, especially for woman, that this evolution is being effected. Between men and women the conjugal relations have at first been nearly everywhere from masters to slaves; then marital despotism became slowly attenuated, and at Rome, for example, where the gradual metamorphosis may be traced during a long historic period, the power of the paterfamilias, which at first had no limit, at length became curbed; the personality of the woman was more and more accentuated, and the rigid marriage of the first centuries of the Republic was replaced under the Empire by a sort of free union. Doubtless this movement necessarily retrograded under the influence of Christianity; but, as always happens in the logic of things, it has, nevertheless, resumed its course; it will become more and more evident, and will surely pass the point at which it stopped in imperial Rome.
Monogamic marriage will continue to subsist; it is the last-comer, and much the most worthy, and besides, the balance of the sexes makes it almost a necessity; but it will have more and more equality in it, and less and less of legal restraint. On this point I am glad to find myself in
- ↑ J. Bertillon, Étude démographique du divorce, p. 61.
