The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1889-03-29

Right Hon. VIM. Il. Gladstone, in Il
Nineteenth Century.

Nineteenth Century.
The greatest and deepest Of all
human controversies is the mar
riage controversy. II appears to
be surging up on all sides around
US; and every book which helps
definitely to map out its lines has
on that account both interest and
value. 1t is In America that, from
whatever cause, this controversy
has reached a stage of deveop-
ment more advanced than else
where. Moreover the present so.
cial lite of America offers al all
points profoundly important field
of observation, toward which Eu-
ropean eyes have hardly yet begun
TO be turned. This social life, if it
does not already embrace the larg-
est province of the entire social
life of civilized man, will shortly
embrace not the largest only, but
the largest beyond ALI comparison,
and will form, in constantly grow
ing proportion, telling element
in the general condition of Chris
tendon, and even Of humanity at
large. The present social life OF
America may be said to be a new
formation, and to have hegun at a
date which would warrant our APP
plying to it the alternative title of
Waverley, "'Tis Sixty Years
Since" Mrs. Stowe must have
drawn upon the experience of her
early days IN her admirable New
England novels, such as "The Min
ister's Wooing;" but The Puritan
life which she describes appears
to have vanished, at least from the
Weather circles of American So
ciety. The true meaning of dis
cussion which calls into question
The ancient and specially Chris
tian constitution of the family is
that it is a vast upthrow in the
world of thought and fact which.
il consummated, will change IN
time the whole moral surface of
the earth, and shift, in a revolution
ary sense, the popularity OF life.
The chief spur brown out literally
from this great upihrow is in Amer
ica. Many readers on this side the
water will be startled when he
learns that in the old State OF Con
necticut one marriage is dissolved
in every ten, and in the new State
of California one in every seven.
He NAV learn with equal surprise
that in South Carolina there Is [ as
| am inlormed) no legal divorce
whatever; | mean, of course, d.
vorce which leads the way to re-
marriage. Again, it is necessary
to bear in mind that The divorces
as we'll as The marriages of any one
State are acknowledged in The
courts of every other. l under
stand that the experience of this
country tends to show that divorce
is largely associated with that por-
tion OF communities which is lack
ing in solid and stable conditions
Of life generally. Amorica may
suffer specially from the shiltingS
of relative position aud circnm-
stances incidental to forward
movement in things material OF an
unexampled rapidly; and it may
also be true that a State like Con-
neclicut has to answer for many
offenses not her own, though she
cannot be exempted from full re-
sponsibility for he laws she has
chosen 10 enact. We must beware
of all sweeping and premature con-
clusions. But it seems Indisputa-
bic that America is the arena on
which many OF the problems con-
nected with The marriage state are
in course of being rapidly, painful
ly and perilOusly tried out. In so
far as she is intrusted, like prR
rogaliva tribus, with the destinies
of others, and may do much by her
example to make or mar them.