BREACH OF PROMISE OUT OF DATE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 75, 21 December 1929, Page 25

BREACH OF PROMISE OUT OF DATE

The one-time popular breach of promise of marriage action is becoming a relic of the past (says the “Daily News”). Mr. Justice McCardie (“the Bachelor Judge”) once suggested that in a modern age, when women were claiming equality with men, the bringing of .such suits was a sign of woman’s inferiority. “It is better” (he has said) “that where love wanes an engagement should be broken than that a union should be contracted that may bring lifelong unhappiness.” It has been suggested in some cases that breach of promise does not necessarily end a woman’s chances of marriage. Indeed, in one case, after the plaintiff left the box Mr. Justice McCardie said that she was a very attractive girl—in fact, “a very marketable young woman.” The decline of the “breach” case is probably also to be attributed to the new ideas of social equality. The modern girl does not regard the breaking of a romance as the “end of all tilings.” The fact that many women are in business tends to diminish the scope of measurable financial loss, and the vogue of the brief engagement has spoiled the old-fashioned picture of the cruel lover who has thrown hi;, sweetheart over after “taking the best years of her life.” L ; ‘ln the Divorce Division, however, women still outnumber men as petitioners, but the old - time order for “restitution of conjugal rights” has practically disappeared. The wife’s separation suit is also less fashionable.