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  Marriage and Divorce
  Laws of the World

  Edited by

  HYACINTHE RINGROSE, D. C. L.
  Author of "The Inns of Court"

  "Marriage is the mother of the world, and
  preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, and
  churches, and heaven itself."--Jeremy Taylor

  THE MUSSON-DRAPER COMPANY
  LONDON      NEW YORK      PARIS
  1911




  Copyright, 1911, by
  HYACINTHE RINGROSE
  All rights reserved




PREFACE


The purpose of this volume is to furnish to the lawyer, legislator,
sociologist and student a working summary of the marriage and divorce laws
of the principal countries of the world.

There are no geographical boundaries to virtue, wisdom and justice, and no
country has as yet monopolized all that is best in creation. The mightiest
of the nations lacks something which is possessed by the weakest; and
there is no branch of comparative jurisprudence of more general
consequence than that treating of marriage, which is the keystone of
civilization.

By "civilization" we do not mean community life according to the standard
of a single individual or nation, but in its broader and better sense,
meaning the civil organization of any large group of human beings.

This book is not a brief in favour of, or against, any particular social
system or legal code, nor has it a mission to assist in the reformation of
any country's marriage and divorce law. In the compilation which follows
our endeavour is simply to set forth positive law as it exists to-day,
leaving its correction or development to the proper authorities.

The editor has lived among the books of the British Museum,