[31] Laws of N. H. (1839, act of July 6), 400. This act was amended in 1840 so that the divorce may be given within three months after passage of the act, provided the whole time of desertion before and after shall not be less than three years: Laws of N. H. (1840, June 19), 439, 440.
[32] Counting divorce for injury to health or endangering reason as two grounds, as in the Rev. Stat. (1842), 293.
[33] Laws of N. H. (1840, November), 488, 489. In the case of habitual drunkenness and of gross and wicked conduct not more than two of the three years may precede the passage of the act.
[34] Rev. Stat. of the State of N. H. (1843), 293. In these cases the time may be counted before and after the act, or if the three years have already expired, then a divorce may be granted in one month after it goes into force: ibid., 293, 294. The period for joining a religious sect was reduced to six months by the act of Jan. 4, 1849: Laws of N. H. (1848-49), 707; Comp. Stat. (1853), 377.
[35] Laws of N. H. (1854), 1424, 1425; also Gen. Stat. of the State of N. H. (1867), 335.
[36] They are still in force in Pub. Stat. (1900), 591. To constitute a cause there must now be conviction for a "crime" punishable in the state by more than one year's imprisonment; and there must be actual confinement under the sentence.
[37] See chap. XV, sec. i, c).
[38] So in the Acts and Laws of his Majesty's Colony of Conn. (1750), 43; in Acts and Laws (1784), 41; ibid. (1805), 457; the Pub. Stat. Laws (1821), 178, 179; ibid. (1835), 162, 163; ibid. (1838), 185, 186; Pub. Acts (1849), 17.
[39] Gen. Stat. of Conn. (1887), 612.
[40] Act of March 21, 1899: Pub. Acts, 996.