[Footnote 337: 23 and 24 Vict., c. 144, sec. 7. The "intervener cannot be the respondent, or any one actually instigated by him or her, or his or her nominee; but the mere fact that the intervener may be (as he usually is) the friend or relative of the respondent is no objection."--GEARY, _op. cit._, 263, 264: Howarth _v._ Howarth (1884), 9 P. D., 218-31; Forster _v._ Forster (1863), 3 SWABEY AND TRISTRAM, _Reports_, 158-60. The queen's proctor may intervene as one of the public. Only the petitioner can apply to have a decree _nisi_ made absolute, but in long default of such application the respondent may ask to have the petition dismissed. Decrees _nisi_ "only apply to petitions for dissolution of marriage and not to judicial separations, restitution of conjugal rights, or jactitation;" but by 36 Vict., c. 31, they do apply to nullity suits: GEARY, _op. cit._, 249, 250 nn. 355, 356.] Secondly, the present English law allows a decree for "judicial separation" with the "same force and the same consequences" as the former sentence of divorce _a mensa et thoro_, which is abolished by the act of 1857.[338] To such a decree either the husband or the wife is entitled on the ground of adultery, cruelty, or two years' desertion;[339] provided no legal bar to the petition such as condonation, cruelty, or a separation deed, be established. At the prayer of the petitioner, or when the evidence is insufficient to warrant a decree of complete divorce, a judicial separation may be granted in a suit brought for dissolution of marriage.[340] After such separation the wife is considered as a _feme sole_ with respect to property, contracts, wrongs, suing and being sued; and her husband is not liable for her engagements.[341] In place of the old action at law for "criminal conversation" a prayer for damage against the wife's paramour may be joined with the petition for judicial separation or for dissolution of wedlock; or the aggrieved husband may make separate application for indemnity.[342] Adultery thus becomes a mere "private injury" and not a crime. The damage recovered may be "applied by the court for the benefit of the children of the marriage or for the maintenance of the wife." When the wife is the guilty person and is entitled to property in possession or in reversion, the court, at its discretion, may settle "such property, or any part of it, on the innocent party, or on the children of the marriage."[343] The rules, principles, and procedure observed in the old ecclesiastical courts are to be followed by the civil judge in a suit for judicial separation except as otherwise provided by statute.[344] [Footnote 338: 20 and 21 Vict., c. 85, secs. 7, 16, 23, 25, 26: _Statutes at Large_, XCVII, 533, 534, 536, 537. On the law for judicial separation see GEARY, _op. cit._, 352-59; HARRISON, _The Laws of Probate and Divorce_, 148-53; WOOLSEY, _Divorce_, 175.]