[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. The right of society to deal freely with the whole province of marriage, divorce, and the family may be conceded. To determine the proper character and sphere of legislation is a very different matter. What is the quality of the existing laws under the interpretation given to them by the courts? Are they adequate to secure proper social control? What is the legitimate aim, and what are the needful limits of future legislation? Should the laws be uniform for the fifty-three states and territories; and, if so, how is uniformity to be attained? These are practical questions with whose solution it is high time that society should more earnestly concern itself. _a_) _The statutes and the common-law marriage._--The defects in the matrimonial laws of the United States are many and grave; but perhaps the chief obstacle in the way of securing a proper social control is the general recognition of the validity of the so-called "common-law marriage." Almost everywhere the public celebration of wedlock is intended by the statute; and in nearly all the states a license or certificate is required before the solemnization may take place. Yet, according to the prevailing doctrine, as expressed in judicial decisions or in the statutes themselves, these provisions are interpreted as merely "directory," not "mandatory;" and marriage contracts made in total disregard of them, by words of mutual present consent, are sustained as valid, although the prescribed penalties may be enforced for violation of the written law. In short, the vicious mediæval distinction between validity and legality is retained as an element of common matrimonial law in the United States.[594]