The law of March 10, 1803, beginning the history of divorce legislation for Alabama, applies also to Mississippi during the territorial stage; and, five years after the state was erected, its provisions, so far as they relate to the causes and kinds of divorce, were re-enacted in 1822.[222] In 1840 the time of desertion to warrant a total divorce was shortened from five to three years.[223] Ten years thereafter it was provided that any person already having a separation from bed and board may, by application to the chancery court of the district or the circuit court of the county where he resides, and producing a transcript of the decree, be divorced from the bond of matrimony. For the future the same privilege is extended to each of the parties to a partial divorce when they "have lived separate and apart from each other for the term of four years."[224] By a statute of 1858 this term is reduced to three years; and only those who have thus lived apart after partial separation are now allowed to petition for the entire dissolution of the marriage bond.[225] But in 1860, apparently to meet special cases, a law provides simply for a divorce _a vinculo_ where the persons, prior to the act, have lived apart in the state four years without collusion.[226] A peculiar cause, a product of the Civil War, appears in 1862. The wife is then allowed a complete divorce when her husband is in the army or navy of the United States or resides in one of the United States in preference to one of the states of the Confederacy.[227] By a statute of 1863 a second marriage is valid when the first spouse has been five years absent; and such spouse is to be presumed dead in any question of alimony arising under the second marriage.[228] In 1867 any citizen marrying out of the state, whose spouse commits adultery before his return to the state, may after such return apply for a total divorce, provided he has not cohabited after discovery of the offense.[229] The causes of separation from bed and board, which had remained unaltered since 1803, were extended in 1857. A partial divorce is then allowed for habitual drunkenness, as well as for extreme cruelty in either person; while the wife is granted the same relief whenever the husband, being of sufficient ability, wantonly and cruelly fails to provide for her support; but a decree for partial separation shall in no case bar the right to full divorce from the bond of wedlock.[230] A very important relaxation in the law takes place in 1871. The two causes of partial divorce just mentioned--habitual drunkenness and cruel treatment--become grounds for total divorce; and the term of desertion is shortened from three to two years.[231] [222] _Stat. of Miss. Ter._ (1816), 252-54; and act of June 15, 1822, in _Code of Miss._ (1848), 495, 496. [223] Act of Feb. 13: _Laws_ (1840), 125. [224] Act of Feb. 14: _Laws_ (1850), 122. [225] Act of Nov. 29: _Laws_ (1858), 166. [226] Act of Feb. 9: _Laws_ (1860), 202.