s
upon which it had been granted being at the same time made cause for
absolute divorce, with the condition, however, that all such divorces
should be in the first instance _nisi_, that is, conditional, to be
made absolute after three years in the discretion of the court, and
after five years as of right. Prior to this time, in 1867, it had been
enacted that all decrees of divorce should be first entered _nisi_,
to be made absolute in six months in the discretion of the court, and
this act of 1870 therefore left nine causes for absolute divorce; but in
all cases for cruelty, desertion, intoxication, or neglect or refusal to
support, the decree must remain conditional for at least three years.
Since that date there have been many changes in the statutes, but all in
the direction of regulating the entry of the decree, without affecting
the causes therefor, except that in 1873, habits of intoxication, even
if contracted before marriage, were made good grounds for a decree.

The law of 1841, which remained in force until 1853, forbad the marriage
of the party for whose fault divorce was granted during the lifetime of
the innocent partner; but in the latter year the court was authorized to
allow the guilty party, except in cases of adultery, to remarry; and in
1864 it was provided that even in such cases the guilty one might marry
after three years, unless actually tried and convicted of the crime. In
1873 even this restriction of three years was removed, and the law
remained so until 1881, when it was enacted that the guilty party in all
cases might marry after two years without the formality of applying to
the court for leave so to do.

From this brief review of the history of our law there is but one
conclusion to be drawn, that slowly but surely the doors to divorce have
been opened until it has become a comparatively easy matter to obtain
that relief which for so many years was absolutely refused. A few
statistics will illustrate this: In the year 1863 there were in the
state 10,873 marriages and 207 divorces; in 1882 there were 17,684
marriages and 515 divorces, or an increase in the former of 62.6 per
cent., and of the latter of 147.6 per cent., while the population of the
state increased in the same time 53.4 per cent. Since the legislation of
1870, which, as we have seen above, made divorce obtainable on nine
grounds, the increase in the number of decrees granted has been 36 per
cent., while in the same period marr