MATRIMONIAL RECONCILIATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 5010, 10 March 1877, Page 3

MATRIMONIAL RECONCILIATION.

(The Times.) Some curioua facts and figures about an institution very little known in this country have just been published in a paper IBB n°n from the Boyal Statistical oflioe, Berlin. They relate to w’aat the Germans call “ Siihneversuche,” that is, attempts at reconciliation—namely, reconciliation of married people who deem the matrimonial tie a burden and wish to be separated. Prussia ifl fortunate m having a special law, very minute in its regulations, upon tho subject. This law, bearing date June 21, 1844, provides that every demand for separation or divorce mast be preceded by an appeal of both tho man and wife to either a clerical or lay authority to undertake the “ SUhne,” tho reconciliation, Tho clerical authority is tho chief one provided for tho circumstances. It is ordered that the plaintiff in tho first instance, and the defendant subsequently, must present themselves before tho clergyman of their parish, and lay tho whole case before him in all its ‘-arings. Having hoard cooh separately, and done his best to point out their individual failings, appealing also to tho necessity of mutual forbearance, end, above all, to the religious commands imposed upon them, tho clergyman’s duty next becomes to see man and wife together, using the strongest arguments in his power to effect a mutual reconciliation. How far the clerical arguments prevail, the statistics further given will show. In the law of Juno 28, 1844, the influence of I ho clergy is prominently made use of for the » SUhnevirsucli * s " but other moans are proTided as a substitute. If. for example, the matrimonial union belongs to the class called "almUohte Men,” or "mixed marriages, life husband and tho wife differing in religion, t o parties may go before a magistrate, who w Uhoar them privately, acting precisely m Til respects as the clergyman However. though Pan appeal to tho magistrate (Itwlder) Uiougn seldom appealed to 18 Pr ? in« Homan Catholics. Tho vast except am 8 wives ond husbands who mU3 u Llni nrofor: from causes not far to of the clergyman to fht’o of the magistrate in the as praiseworthy often difficult attempt at matrimonial reoonciiitttion. 1814, only extends to T !:^rp°ir oeß 0 eB of Prussia, the territories the old Pro ° e doffl ftEter the war of 1866 annexed to the g opwa tion. Exempt being exempt from i i F f Rhino pr<> _ likewise is the g w hj o h is under the vincos, the Icgislat rao tically tho law is In Code Napoleon. o£ p ru9 gi a which r " ™”’“

reasons—ospooiully that of thenon-reoognition bv tho Church of divorce* quoad thprum et vinculum . only separation being allowed quoad ihorum et weasom—tho Roman Catholic clergy of Prussia appear to oppose mtornatically tho working of the law of SUhnever • nucha, leaving It either to tho Judge, or If they have sufficient power, suppressing it ontiroly. The effect of this must oertsiuly bo to some extent the prevention of divorces, though whether it ultimately acts well morally or socially is not so certain. Tho law of 1844 is very decided in ordering that no tribunal can entertain an action lor either a separation or a divorce, unless tho plaintiff proauoos a certificate that tho attempt at reconciliation has been mode and has been fruitless—" der I'ersuch fruchtlos gehliehen ist"— and consequently tho opposition of tho Homan Catholic clergy to tho law, as far as it goes, mast be to stop any such actions. The question naturally arises whether it is in tho public interest that suits of this kind should bo merely, os it were, suppressed, or whether it is preferable that their cause should be put an end to. The latter certainly seems more of tho nature of a radical cure, and, considered in this Hjfht, no little praise is duo to tho spirit which dictated the institution of “ Suhnevermche .” The success that has attended tho attempts at reconciliation in the jours 1878 and 1874 is succinctly shown in the short tabular statement which gives tho total number of couples desiring a separation —* streitende Shepaare” —that is " quarrelling couples," as tho German statistical return, not spurning tho use of plain words, calls them—together with tho number of couples reconciled by clergymen, tho number not reconciled, and the number of those who wore rooonoiled before but desired again a separation—' " gmdhen von Neuem in Streit,” or “ began quarrelling afresh ’’—and, finally, tho number of oases unsettled under each category at the end of the year. The “ Siihnjversuohe ” referred to are entirely thosoeffeotod by clergymen—including Rabbis among Jews—while tie statistics, as before explained, embraced only seven out of tho 11 Provinces of Prussia, tho so-called " old ” ones, together with a snail part of an eighth, tho Rhino Province. Gibe total population of the seven Provinces wai 17,312,397 at tho last Census, taken Doe. 1, 1875. 1. Total , number of married couples desiring a separation:—Year 1873,7325; 1874, 7430. 2. Number of oouplei reconciled, or not, by clergymen;— Not Cases Year. Reconciled. Reconciled, Pending. 1873 ... 2829 ... 3377 ... 1119 1871 ... 2688 ... 3700 > ... 1042 3. Number of couple) who, being reconciled, desired a separation : —Year 1873, 603 J 1874, 502. ’ 4. Number of couples reconciled br not a second time by clergy non Not : Coses Year. Reconciled, Reconciled. (Ponding, 1873 ... 196 ... 267 ... I 140 1874 ... 155 ... 240 ... , 106 It will bo seen that (he success of tie clergy in the Protestant Provinces of Piussia in healing some of the miseries of ill assorted marriages and preventing separations and divorces has been not it at all inooniiderable. The success is the mire striking when it is considered that the hfluence of the clergy is by no means overwhelmingly great among the inhabitants of the kingdon of the/Hohenzollorns, so that the resub obtained must be due as much, if not morq to the purely social than to the religious authority of (he directors of tho “ Siihneversuc7i}. > ’ It is characteristic that in this respect the Prussian clergy are often referred to as,*peace-makers,” a title of which they may will be proud.