Note 219 — XVI MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE UNDER ROMAN AND ENGLISH LAW (continued 2)

In an interesting article in the Political Science Quarterly for March, 1893, Mr. W. F. Willcox (now (1900) of the U. S. Census Office) argues that the divorce rate is influenced by depression of trade, declining when the lower middle and working class, among whom it is frequent, are less able to afford it.

Mr. Willcox quotes some remarkable figures from Japan showing an extremely high divorce rate there. In 1886 there were in Japan 315,311 marriages and 117,964 divorces. This is four and a-half times the rate in the U. S. of America, which comes next.