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    ; THE LAWS RELATING TO THEM. 53

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    ¦ •? It Is Common In Our Day To Call Swi...

    twenty-five for men and twenty-one for women , according to the French code the consent of _progenitors or guardians is necessary ,

    and with regard to progenitors , this consent cannot be forced from them . If one of the parents is dead , the consent of the other is

    sufficient . If -they .-differ , the opinion of the father carries it . Similarlywhenin consequence of the death or the absence of the

    , , . parents , it is necessary to claim the consent of the grandfathers and grandmothers : if the grandfather and grandmother on the

    same side differ , the opposition , of the grandfather suffices to hinder the marriage . Only when there is division between the two sides

    of the family , this division entails consent . Why should not this rule be applicable in all cases of difference of opinion ? Why this

    privilege always and everywhere in favour of the man , even against the man ? For the father is as likely , or more likely , to

    object to premature marriage for his son than for his daughter . And ought not the wish of the parties immediately concerned to go for

    something ? Ought it not rather to decide the question in all possible cases of disagreement among the progenitors ? The same

    provisions are in force in Neuchatel and the Canton de Vaud . Beyond the age fixed for legal majoritythe law still requires

    , that the advice of the progenitors should be asked by a respectful and formal act . But in this case , consent can be claimed as a

    right . _TBy emancipation , the date of legal majority may be _& Ked at an

    earlier ag * e , and the infant , male or female , may be made competent from the age of 18 to administer his affairs and direct his own

    conduct . But emancipation rarely takes place except on the death of the father . In that case , it is resorted to in order to escape the

    necessity of establishing a guardianship . The infant in law cannot leave home and engage in any calling , before his majority , without

    this express curious permission peculiarity from , that his an father exception , but the is made French in favour law presents of the

    son of eighteen , who wishes to go into the army . So that a young man has full liberty to go and get himself killed at the other end

    of the world , or to spend the best years of his youth in the idle life of a _g-arrisonwhereas one who feels in himself a talent , or an

    urgent call to , follow some useful career , but whose father forbids him to embrace itmust wait three years for the right to say : I

    will . Such inconsistencies , as these make a deep line of demarcation between legality and justice , between law and morals . Switzerland ,

    having no standing army , and foreign enlistment being forbidden , this strange provision of the French code is at Geneva a dead letter .

    By the Genevese law , a girl of 21 , or a girl of 18 who has been emancipated , comes into the full possession of civil rights . She can

    make a home of her own , administer her own property , if she has anyalienate itif she chooseseven squander it according to her

    , , , pleasure , so long as it is not done in such an insensate manner as

    to make her subject to an act of lunacy , which would place her in

    ; The Laws Relating To Them. 53

    ; THE LAWS RELATING TO THEM . 53

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 2, 1863, page 53, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02031863/page/53/