THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8812, 27 February 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE.

This is the season of the year when the list of marriage announcements increases greatly. The betrothals of the summer are fulfilled in the weddings of the autumn, and in all the circles of society we have abundant and practical proof that the cry about the failure of marriage, which has been raised by a few pessimistic philosophers, both men and women, ia not heeded by healthy minds, and does not check the growth of the sentiment which results in matrimony. It may be true that there has been a decline in the marriage rate of highly civilised countries during recent years. This is a matter of statistics, which are indisputable. But because there has been sucii a decrease we have no good reason for concluding that the desire for marriage has lessened proportionately or that the institution of matrimony has fallen into any disfavour. It means simply that more people are unable to gratify the desire for mating than under the old social conditions. The great and pervasive emigration movement in Europe must have tended to reduce the marriage rate in the countries most affected by it, and, as a matter of fact, they are the countries where the decline is most noticeable. Naturally, emigration makes a heavy draft on the young and enterprising unmarried men, and carries them away to different associations. Even when they reach the United States, whither most of the _ emigrants come, the necessities of their situation as now settlers forbid their marrying until their foothold is well eucured. Thus they swell the total of the population, on which the marriage rate is based, and yet) do not increase the number of marriages. The enormous draft which the armies of Europe make on the young and vigorous men of the great States also assist to a marked degree in lowering the rate in them all. Modern civilisation, moreover, requires the employment of vast numbers of young men in professions and occupations which shu them out from matrimony hardly less than the military service itself. Railways and telegraphs, engineering and mining enterprises, ocean transportation, the new methods of selling merchandise by the means of a multitude of travelling agents, and the slow preparation for strictly professional caroers.act as obstacles to marriage in youth, and therefore lessen the probability of its occurrence at any period in life. More men, proportionately, are nomads and adventurers than in times past, and the unsettlement of their lives of course tends to keep them from marrying, for marriage goes with the fixedness and permanency of homes. Even in this new country, and even among the farming population, whose inclination to early marriages has always been especially strong, this migratory spirit is exhibited to a striking degree. The loneliness of the farm life and the severity of the manual labour of the farm are sending the young men to the towns, whose aggregate population is increasing at a ratio so much greater than that of the country. Of course, these must add to the ranks of the bachelors while they are striving and hustlng to make their way under new conditions. The decline in the marriage rate, accordingly, is easily j explainable on other grounds than the [ pessimistic theory of the growth of an , actual disinclination to matrimony be- , cause of scepticism as to the ftd--5 vantages of the institution. T.I _ fewer ■ people marry proportionately, it is not l because the rest do not want to marry, , but because the circumstances of their lot prevent them from gratifying their desire . to be mated. This is a far more defensible theory, so far ad concerns the great mass of the unwedded. It applies to all unmarried J women and to most men in the same condition. The bachelors from choice are an [ insignificant number. The voluntary old , maids do not exist, unless in convents. . In the circle of society where the greatest ' wealth exists, and where consequently the material obstacles to matrimony are least, : marriages, and early marriages, are most frequent, as the autumn weddings prove, , year after year.—New York Sun.