d and enforced. The other
cases show that cruel and abusive treatment and absence unexplained for
the term of three years were then as now considered good grounds on
which to seek separation.

The first legislation in our state bearing directly on our subject
appears to have been in 1692, when it it was provided that all
controversies concerning marriage and divorce should be heard and
determined by the Governor and Council, thus changing simply the
tribunal without affecting the existing laws. Curiously enough, although
the tribunal which should determine the controversies was thus fixed,
there was no provision made for enforcing its decrees, and it was thus
left practically powerless for sixty-two years, or until 1754, when this
defect in the law was remedied by a provision that refusal or neglect to
obey the decrees of the Governor and Council might be punished like
contempt of courts of law and equity by imprisonment.

In 1693 were passed the first statutes regulating the subject of
marriage in the colony, the preamble to which was as follows: "Although
this court doth not take in hand to determine what is the whole bredth
of the divine commandment respecting marriage, yet, for preventing the
abominable dishonesty and confusion which might otherwise happen,"
certain marriages are declared to be unlawful and the issue thereof
illegitimate, and severe and degrading punishments are provided for all
offenders, even although innocent of any wrong intent.

As the population of the colony increased and spread over the country at
a distance from Boston, the fact that the only court having jurisdiction
of matters of divorce and marriage was held only in that town was the
cause of ever-increasing inconvenience, and accordingly it was enacted
in 1786 that "whereas, it is a great expense to the people of this state
to be obliged to attend at Boston upon all questions of divorce, when
the same might be done within the counties where the parties live, and
where the truth might be better discovered by having the parties in
court," jurisdiction in all matters of divorce should be vested in the
Supreme Judicial Court, where it has ever since remained in spite of
efforts made at various times to give to other courts concurrent or even
exclusive jurisdiction. As the Supreme Judicial Court is now overworked,
and as it is not deemed advisable, for various reasons, to increase its
numbers, it is more than probable, in view of the incre