(7) The system of granting financial provision, _i.e._, alimony, to an untainted wife who petitions, to stand on the present basis. Also, damages against a co-respondent to stand. (8) The elimination from a petition of the allegation of “cruelty” which now has to be proved by a petitioning wife before she can obtain a divorce. Adultery without “cruelty” to form a foundation for a successful petition. (9) The donation of powers to grant divorce to all County Court judges, for purposes of expediency in connection with the poor. These seem the principal points associated with “what the public wants” in this age of a better appreciation of the “nature of the beast”--Man, or more correctly, Mankind. FOOTNOTES [2] See Appendix A. [3] Pretty _v._ Pretty. [4] “In granting the application of a Paris doctor for restitution of conjugal rights, the judges have made an interesting new departure by fixing a penalty of £4 for every day’s delay in complying with the order of the Court. They consider this the most practical means of bringing the recalcitrant wife to reason.”--_Pall Mall Gazette._ [5] Lord Mackenzie in _Studies in Roman Law with Comparative Views of the Laws of France, England, and Scotland_. CHAPTER II DEATH AND BURIAL[6] The office of the coroner dates back for many centuries, but it has never grown to much importance, despite the blazing interest which sometimes attaches to it during the preliminaries leading up to a notorious murder trial. The coroner may be any one of a great variety of things from a barrister to a doctor, from a solicitor to a man who can just read and write. It is this variation in qualification which has perhaps helped to prompt the persons responsible for the introduction of the new Bill--The Coroners’ Law and Death Certification (Amendment) Bill. Too little regard is paid to death by most people, beyond the matter of testamentary disposition, and even that is often neglected. Death deserves as much consideration as life itself, and to neglect its contemplation exhibits a certain want of foresight. It may be that from time immemorial it has savoured of supernatural association, but after all it is the most ordinary incident of nature to which we are subject. One has no hesitation in giving the laws relating thereto the advantage of publicity, for the simple reason that they should be no less interesting than intimate essays on the rules regulating divorce, or marriage, or any other peculiarly human question. Some estimate of the purpose of the new Coroners’ Bill, will be found in the following _Memorandum_: “This Bill, which does not apply to Scotland or Ireland, is intended to remove certain anomalies in the law relating to coroners and inquests, and to the certification of deaths, disclosed by reports of several committees during recent years.