Note 593 — Chapter XVIII · PROBLEMS OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

In Paris alone during the first twenty-seven months after the passage of the act 5,994 divorces were granted; while in 1797 the divorce decrees in that city actually outnumbered the marriages: Glasson, Le mar. civil et le divorce, 261, 262. Accordingly, in 1798, the law was amended so as to make divorce for "incompatibility allowable only six months after final failure of attempts at reconciliation;" and this law also required all municipal authorities to proceed, and all teachers of public and private schools to take their pupils, "to the usual meeting places of the community every ten years in person and in state, there to make stern proclamation of the parties divorced during the previous decade, with the view of thus checking divorces."—Wright, Report, 1005; Naquet, Le divorce, 212-37, giving documents; Brun, "Divorce Made Easy," North Am. Rev., CLVII (July, 1893), 12, 13; citing Duval, Souvenirs thermidoriens, I, 60, 61. See also the Rapport (27 thermidor, an. V) of Portalis, who was the chief advocate of the amendment. In 1800, it is alleged, there were about 4,000 marriages and 700 divorces in Paris. To what extent the relative decrease was due to the change in the law can only be conjectured.