Marriages
to Every One
States. Marriages. Divorces. Divorce.
Connecticut 96,737 8,542 11.32
Columbia 24,065 1,105 21.77
Massachusetts 308,195 9,853 31.28
Ohio 544,362 26,367 20.65
Rhode Island 49,593 4,462 11.10
Vermont 54,913 3,238 19.95

In the other States of the Union, from which less accurate returns are
at hand, the proportion seems to be the same. The reasons why in the
United States divorces are more frequent than in any other country, may
be sought in the circumstance, first, that divorce is there more easily
obtained than elsewhere; secondly, that _women occupy in the United
States a far freer position than in any other country, hence are less
inclined to allow themselves to be tyrannised by their marital
lords_.[76]

In Germany there was, by judicial decision, 1 dissolution of marriage--

In the Years To Population. To Marriages.
1881-1885 8,410 1,430
1886 7,585 1,283
1887 7,261 1,237
1888 6,966 1,179
1889 7,155 1,211

According to Dr. S. Wernicke, there were to every 1,000 marriages,
divorces in:

Years. Belgium. Sweden. France.
1841-1845 0.7 4.2 2.7
1846-1850 0.9 4.4 2.8
1851-1855 1.0 4.4 4.0
1856-1860 1.4 4.3 4.9
1861-1865 1.6 4.8 6.0
1866-1870 1.9 5.0 7.6
1871-1875 2.8 5.8 6.5
1876-1880 4.2 7.1 9.0

It would be an error to attempt to arrive at any conclusion touching the
different conditions of morality, by deductions from the large
discrepancy between the figures for the different countries cited above.
No one will dare assert that the population of Sweden has more
inclination or cause for divorce than that of Belgium. First of all must
the legislation on the subject be kept in mind, which in one country
makes divorce difficult, in another easier, more so in some, less in
others. Only in the second instance does the condition of morality come
into consideration, i. e., the average reasons that, now the husbands,
then the wives, consider deter