[117] By the Vermont act of Nov. 22, 1898: _Acts and Resolves_, 38, 39, when a married woman files a libel for divorce and prays for alimony, the husband is enjoined from conveying or removing from the state, during pendency of the libel, such portion of his estate as the judge may think necessary to secure alimony, and from concealing or interfering with the property or clothing of the wife and minor children, or such portion of his personal property as may be at the time in her possession.
[118] _Pub. Stat. of Mass._ (1882), 814; _Laws of Mass._ (1821), 508, 509; _Rev. Stat. of Mass._ (1835), 482; _Vermont Stat._ (1894), 509; _Rev. Stat. of Maine_ (1884), 521; _Rev. Stat. of N. H._ (1843), 294.
A divorce for the cause of adultery committed by the woman, by the Massachusetts statute, does not affect her title to her separate real and personal estate during her life, except that the court may award the man a just share of it for the support of the minor children decreed to his custody. Should the divorced wife marry again, the former husband's interest in such separate estate, after her death, ceases, except as thus required for the children's alimony. After divorce the wife is not entitled to dower; unless the cause be the husband's infidelity or his sentence to confinement at hard labor; and except when the husband dies before a decree _nisi_, granted on the wife's petition, has become absolute.[120] The Massachusetts law, as thus broadly outlined, is typical of that which prevails throughout New England, although there are some important variations in matters of detail.[121] The Vermont statute, in particular, is very clear and elaborate in its provisions. "Upon the dissolution of a marriage, by a divorce or decree of nullity, for any cause except that of adultery committed by the wife," the latter is entitled to the immediate possession of her real estate. In all cases "the court may decree to the wife such part of the real and personal estate of her husband, as it deems just, having regard to the circumstances of the parties respectively; and it may require the husband to disclose on oath, what real and personal estate has come to him by reason of the marriage, and how the same has been disposed of, and what portion thereof remains in his hands." There is also provision for placing the property awarded the wife in the hands of trustees in her behalf.[122]