All of the twenty-six states under consideration have prescribed rules or conditions regarding the residence of the plaintiff in divorce suits. In nearly every instance a definite term of previous residence in the state, or in the state and in the county, of the action is fixed. This term varies from six months to three years, one year being the prevailing period. In the West the requirements in this regard are not in general so rigid as in some eastern and southern states; but during the past two decades encouraging progress has been made. The law of New York governing residence has in the preceding subsection already been presented. A fixed term is not prescribed, except that in cases of partial divorce, when the marriage was solemnized outside the state, the persons must have "continued to be residents" of the state for at least one year, and the plaintiff must be resident at the time the action is commenced.[543] Delaware has not fixed a definite period of residence; but no divorce from the bond of matrimony will be decreed when the cause assigned therefor in the petition occurred out of the state and the "petitioner was a non-resident thereof at the time of its occurrence, unless for the same or like cause such divorce would be allowed by the laws of the state or country in which it is alleged to have occurred."[544] Delaware, like Maine and Massachusetts, has attempted to prevent clandestine divorce through evasion of the laws. "When any inhabitant ... shall go into any other jurisdiction to obtain a divorce for any cause occurring here; or for any cause which would not authorize a divorce by the laws of this state; a divorce so obtained shall be of no force or effect in this state."[545] The statute of New Jersey gives the court of chancery jurisdiction in actions for divorce when either the complainant or defendant is an inhabitant of the state "at the time of the injury, desertion, or neglect;" when the marriage took place within the state, and the complainant is an actual resident at the time the injury arose, and at the time of exhibiting the bill; when the adultery occurred within the state and either spouse is a resident thereof at the commencement of the suit; or when one of the persons, at the time of filing the bill and for the term of two years during which the desertion shall have continued, is a resident of the commonwealth.[546] When the cause is adultery committed outside the state, three years' previous residence on the part of either the complainant or the defendant is always required.[547] [543] STOVER, _Code of Civil Proced._ (1892), II, 1640. [544] _Rev. Stat. of Del._ (1893), 598; being the act of 1891: _Laws_, XIX, chap. 243, p. 480. [545] _Rev. Stat. of Del._ (1893), 598. "In all other cases a divorce decreed in any other state or country" is valid: _ibid._, 598.