Divorce Intelligence
Divorce in England: A Centenary Study. By 0. R. McGregor. (Heinemann, 18s.) THE history of divorce in England before and since 1857, which Mr. McGregor surveys in the opening chapter of this lively book, .cannot be regarded with pride or satisfaction by Englishmen of any persuasion. But it is on the present state of the question that he designs to focus attention, not onv the inconsistencies, the anomalies and the injustices of the past. He writes as a social scientist, not as an historian. And his principal theme is that social science can do much, and could to very much more, to secure an intelligent approach to divorce and related problems.
As it is, opinions are bandied about that are based on prejudice or presupposition, and few people have shown a dispassionate concern to ascertain the actual facts of the .case. Nor is it m only the man in the street or the man in the. pew- who is indifferent to the evidence that could be made available to him. Ecclesiastics; politicians, lawyers, and educationalists, who habitually make
public pronouncements on the subject, content themselves with unsubstantiated conjectures and vague.impressions..
Anyone can make the experiment of asking a group of generally well-informed persons what percentage of marriages at present end in divorce. It will be found that, while estimates naturally vary, the usual estimate is considerably, and even largely, in excess of what Mr. McGregor shows to be the true one. Why is this so? It ,is because moralists of one kind and another have so per- sistently alleged that easier divorce is leading to the breakdown of the institution of marriage and to the emergence of a divorce-minded nation that nearly everyone is inclined to believe that they are right. In fact these gloomy forebodings are greatly exaggerated, and Mr. McGregor can forcibly argue that respect, and indeed enthusiasm, for the institution of marriage is steadily increasing.
His most important plea, however, is for recognition of the need to collect and weigh statistical and Other data which would make pos- sible a serious study of the causes and significance of marriage breakdowns.
In this connection, the villain of the piece is the Royal Commission appointed in 1951 of which Lord Mortob -Was chairman. Mr. McGregor's critique of its composition and of the assumptions underlying its Report is prima fade damning, and his particular charge that it failed to realise the contribution that social science could make to an understanding of the questions it was set to answer is manifestly justified. It is to be' hoped that as a result of his vigorous statement of the case the collection and assimilation of factual evidence will begin to be taken seriously by political, legal and religious agencies. '
Mr. McGregor has a chapter on 'Christian Marriage' in which he makes fair play with the inconsistencies exhibited by Christian spokesmen. He does not attempt to discuss the Christian doctrine of marriage in a way that engages with the writings of contemporary theologians, and his documentation here is on a lower level than in his own proper field. But since Christians are as much inclined as non-Christians to ground 'their case on generalisations concerning the actual social consequences of divorce,' he does them a useful service by confronting them with empirical 01" dence that is in conflict with what they are accustomed to assert.
ALEC V IDLER
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