[591] See chap, viii, sec. i; and consult GLASSON, _Le mar. civil et le divorce_, 210 ff., 232-51.
[592] On the revolutionary legislation regarding marriage and divorce (1792-1816) see NAQUET, _Le divorce_ (Paris, 1877), 37-56, 153-353, containing extracts from the debates, text of the laws, reports, and other documents; _Archives parlementaires_, XXVI, 166-86, giving the report on the proposed civil marriage law; WRIGHT, _Report_, 1004-6, presenting summaries of the laws; CHAMPION, "La revolution et la réforme de l'état civil," _La révolution française_, June 14, 1887; COLFAVRU, "La question du divorce devant les législateurs de la révolution," _ibid._, March 14, 1884; KOENIGSWARTER, _Histoire de l'organisation de la famille en France_, 268 ff.; GLASSON, _Le mar. civil et le divorce_, 252-75; LEGRAND, _Le mariage et les mœurs en France_, 196-99; DURRIEUX, _Du divorce_, 99 ff.; FÉVAL, _Pas de divorce_, 74 ff.; FIAUX, _La femme, le mariage, et le divorce_, 25 ff.; VRAYE AND GODE, _Le divorce et la séparation du corps_, I, 7-26; BERTILLON, _Étude démographique du divorce_, 89 ff.; and in general LASAULX, _Uebereinstimmung der französischen Ehetrennungsgesetze mit Gotteswort_ (Koblenz and Hadamar, 1816).
A powerful influence on revolutionary opinion must have been exerted by the remarkable _Contrat conjugal_, published in 1781, again in 1783, and in German translation in 1784, which advocated civil marriage and free divorce, while attacking the ecclesiastical system of impediments and dispensations. The revolutionary ideas regarding divorce are also vigorously presented by HENNET, _Du divorce_ (3d ed., Paris, 1792); and by BOUCHOTTE, _Observations sur le divorce_ (Paris, 1790). On the other hand, the divorce law of 1792 is criticised and divorce opposed by MADAME NECKER, _Réflexions sur le divorce_ (Paris, 1792; Lausanne, 1794); as in _Du divorce_ (Paris, 1801), 1 ff., by BONALD, who opposed the law of 1803 and secured its repeal in 1816. See PÈRE DANIEL'S _Le mariage chrétien et le Code Napoléon_ (Paris, 1870); and for an examination of the literature of the period, TISSOT, _Le mariage, la séparation, et le divorce_, 174 ff., 180 ff., 196 ff., 211 ff., 222 ff.
[593] In Paris alone during the first twenty-seven months after the passage of the act 5,994 divorces were granted; while in 1797 the divorce decrees in that city actually outnumbered the marriages: GLASSON, _Le mar. civil et le divorce_, 261, 262. Accordingly, in 1798, the law was amended so as to make divorce for "incompatibility allowable only six months after final failure of attempts at reconciliation;" and this law also required all municipal authorities to proceed, and all teachers of public and private schools to take their pupils, "to the usual meeting places of the community every ten years in person and in state, there to make stern proclamation of the parties divorced during the previous decade, with the view of thus checking divorces."--WRIGHT, _Report_, 1005; NAQUET, _Le divorce_, 212-37, giving documents; BRUN, "Divorce Made Easy," _North Am. Rev._, CLVII (July, 1893), 12, 13; citing DUVAL, _Souvenirs thermidoriens_, I, 60, 61. See also the _Rapport_ (27 thermidor, an. V) of Portalis, who was the chief advocate of the amendment. In 1800, it is alleged, there were about 4,000 marriages and 700 divorces in Paris. To what extent the relative decrease was due to the change in the law can only be conjectured.