The St. Johns herald., 1890-01-23

wealth in the hands of her owl
 people would meet the shock anC suffer no appreciable loss or dimin
 ution in her financial standing ant condition.-San Francisco Chroni
 cle.
 The effects of the celebrated Shar.
 on divorce case are beginning to be
 seen in a direction which is the in
 evitable outcome of the looseness
 of construction adopted in that
 cause celebre. The trial court de
 cided that the evidence established
 an assumption of the marital rela-
 ton sufficient to constitute marri-
 age, and the earlier decision of the
 supreme court seemed to sustain
 this view of the law. The true danger
 in the decision was the supposition
 given to the idea that marriage Is
 simply civil contract. The Cali fornia courts have inclined toward
 this view-held more strictly in some other States-because of recognition of the injustice of
 the common-law rule received from
 England, which regarded the identi-
 ty of the wife as merged in that of
 here husband. Her property rights
 in this view became practically
 naught, and California has always
 inclined to the more liberal theory that in its commercial aspect mar riage is more in the nature of partnership. But this commercial view of marriage has somewhat obscured the fact that the relation is more than a mere joining of for tunes. The daily papers inform us that a young woman in Fresno, impregnated by the loose ideas of marriage fostered by these decisions has entered into a marriage based upon a contract by which she agrees 10 become the wife of Q persistent suitor for a period of six months. The young woman has carried out tl.c civil-contract idea to its logical absurd extreme. If marriage is simply contract, 1t may be enter ed into in virtue of a contract with l any desired condition and limita- tions. The duration of contract | is a matter to be settled in the | agreement itself, and if no time is specified, it's duration depends upon the will of either of the parties. If marriage is simply a contract, there is nothingt to prevent the agreement of this young woman constituting a perfectly valid marriage, and her plan of matrimony is likely to be- come extremely popular, doing away, as 1t does, with all the expen- ses and annoyances Of divorce pro- There is well-establish- ed doctrine, however, that marriage is a matter in which the whole community is interested, as we'll as the high contracting parties, and such a loosening of the marriage tie is not likely to be contemplated calmly by those who recognize how completely the social system is based upon the family and the mar riage relation. There is another point which this young woman and her happy suitor are likely to run against. Marriage, though it may be considered in our courts primar- ly as a contract, has in It some ,hing more permanent than a mere agreement. A contract entered into in due form, may be sufficient to establish the relation of marriage, but the relation once assumed has certain established, yell-defned, and inseperable fea- | ures, and one of the most promi- lent of these is its indissolability ave by death or the divorce court. The necessity of divorce proceed ngs is society's statement of its ( .laim to an interest in the matter, { md of the importance of the par [ H.