[393] Laws of the Com. (1822), VI, 288; Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1634. But when marriages within such degrees "shall not have been dissolved during the lifetime of the parties, the unlawfulness of the same shall not be enquired into after the death of either husband or wife."
[394] By the act of April 13, 1843: Laws (1843), 233; Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1636, "where the wife is lunatic or non compos mentis" a petition for divorce may be "exhibited by any relative or next friend" who shall make the affidavit provided for in other cases of divorce.
[395] Act of May 8: Laws (1854), 644; Pepper and Lewis, Digest (1896), I, 1635. When divorce is granted the husband for the tenth cause, the wife may be allowed alimony according to his circumstances.
By an act of March 9, 1855 (Pub. Laws, 68; Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1636), the courts of common pleas are given jurisdiction in all cases of divorce "from the bonds of matrimony for the cause of personal abuse, or for such conduct on the part of either the husband or the wife as to render the condition of the other party intolerable and life burdensome, notwithstanding the parties were at the time of the occurring of said causes domiciled in another state;" but the applicant must be a citizen and have been a resident of the state for one year. This act, according to judicial interpretation, does not establish new causes for divorce, but only enlarges the jurisdiction of the court in reference to the parties under causes already recognized: Schlichter v. Schlichter, 10 Phila. Reports, 11 (1873). Cruel and barbarous treatment must be alleged in the libel: Pennington v. Pennington, ibid., 22.
[396] Laws of Pa. (1903), 19; repealing the act of June 1, 1891: ibid. (1891), 142.
[397] Pepper and Lewis, Digest (1896), I, 1687. Cf. the act of March 13, 1815: Laws of the Com. (1822), VI, 286; and Laws (1817), 405.
[398] Laws (1862), 430; Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1637, 1638.
[399] Act of June 20: Laws (1893), 471; Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1638, 1639.
[400] Act of 1815: Laws of the Commonwealth (1822), VI, 288; Pepper and Lewis, Digest (1896), I, 1634.
"While a well-founded belief in the death of her first husband will relieve a woman marrying a second time from the pains of adultery, it cannot validate her second marriage, if, in fact, her first husband was living when it was solemnized."—Thomas v. Thomas, 124 Pa., 646; s. c., 23 W. N. C., 410 (1889). Cf. Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1634, ed. note.