ssolution. Probably it would be
wiser, as a further necessary safeguard against too hasty parting, to
require the marriage to have lasted for five years, before application
for its dissolution could be made. I think, however, in urgent cases,
and wherever it could be shown that the marriage had been entered into
under a mistake and had been continuously unhappy, it should be possible
to remit this requirement.

The case where one partner only of the marriage desires its dissolution
is much more difficult, and cannot, I think, be settled with the same
justice. I would, however, point out that the same situation is common
before marriage, when an engagement is broken by one or other of the
lovers, though, of course, the pain and injury (if such words can be
used in this connection) must be much greater after marriage. The law
allows in these cases compensation to be claimed by the injured partner
for the harm suffered, and, though no one can uphold these breach of
promise cases (which have increased so unfortunately in the war-period)
it should be possible to avoid a similar sordidness. The establishment
of right to compensation is not a new thing in divorce; used in the way
I suggest it would serve as a safeguard against a too hasty escape from
marriage, as well as being an act of justice for the partner who wished
for the divorce to compensate, as fully as his or her means or working
capacity permitted, the one who desired the continuance of the marriage.

The amount of compensation offered, as well as the amount claimed, if
there was not an agreement between the partners, should be stated when
application for the divorce is made; and this question should be settled
before any further proceedings are allowed. The required periods of
waiting would, of course, be enforced.

It may be interesting to my readers to learn that this principle of
compensation, given by the partner who claims divorce to the one who
does not desire it, is one that is common among many primitive peoples,
especially wherever customs of maternal descent prevail.[106:1] It is
practiced, to give one instance, by the Khasis, a maternal people of the
hill tribes of East India; it affords an example of how much more
wisely, because more simply, these matters are sometimes arranged,
before civilization destroys our common sense.

VIII

So far, I have ignored the real difficulty of divorce--the child or
children. At once the situation alters; when c