AG'DE, an ancient French t. in the dept. of Herault, founded by the Greeks, and situated about a league from the Mediterranean sea, on the left bank of a navigable stream. To the n., under the walls of the t., flows the Languedoc canal. The mouth of the stream forms a harbor, which is entered by 400 vessels yearly. The coast-trade of A., in particular, is very brisk, while it is also the entrepot for the traffic of the s. and w. of France. It has, besides, considerable intercourse with Italy, Spain, and Africa. It carries on a large and prosperous trade in wine, oil, salt, corn, timber, wool, silk, and cloth ; but the general aspect of the place is sombre and forbidding, on account of the black basalt of which the houses are built, whence it has popularly received the name of the Black Town. It possesses a naval academy, and is noted in history as the place at which Alaric, king of the Goths, convened a council. Pop. '76, 7728.
AGE. The legal divisions of human life, being sometimes arbitrary, and sometimes founded on nature, differ considerably in different countries. In England, the whole period previous to 21 years of A. is usually spoken of as infancy, a term -which has a totally different signification in those countries that have followed the civil law. But notwithstanding this general division, which is common to both sexes, the ages of male and female are different for different purposes. " A male, at 12 years old, may take the oath of allegiance; at 14, is at years of discretion, and therefore may consent or disagree to marriage, may choose his guardian, may be an executor, although he cannot act until of age; and at 21, is at his own disposal, and may alien and devise his lands, goods, and chattels. A female, also, at 7 years of age, may be betrothed or given in marriage; at 14, is at years of legal discretion, and may choose a guardian ; at 17, may be an executrix; and at 21, may dispose of herself and her lands. So that full A. in male or female is 21 years, which A. is completed on the day preceding the anniversary of a person's birth, who, till that time, is an infant, and so styled in law."—(icerr's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 493.) By the law of Scotland, again, life is divided into three periods—pupilarity, minority, and majority. The first extends from birth to the age of legal puberty, which is 14 in
males and 12 in females, at which ages they may respectively marry; the second embraces the period from the termination of pupilarity till the attainment of majority,which takes place at the age of 21 in both sexes; and the third includes the whole of after-life. The term minority, however, is often applied to the whole period anterior to majority, and is thus equivalent to infancy or nonage in England. Infancy in Scotland can scarcely be said to possess a technical meaning; but when used at all, it is always in the sense of the Homan infantia, to indicate the period from birth till 7 years of age, during which a child, unless in very unusual circumstances, is intrusted to the care of the mother. The office of tutory corresponds in duration to pupilarity, that of curatory to minority. See TUTOR, GUARDIAN. By the Roman law, an approach to majority was held to modify the character of minority, and so of the other periods; but this rule has not been followed by the law of Scotland; and a youth who wants but a day of 21 is as much incapacitated as if he were 15. In France, the marriageable A. is 18 in males and 15 in females (code civile, art. 144), an arrangement which seems more reasonable than that which we have borrowed from the Romans, and which, however suitable it may have been to the climate of Italy, could never have been free from inconveniences in this country. Twenty-one is generally the age at which men are eligible for public offices; and at this age they may elect and be elected members of parliament. But a man must be 24 before he can be admitted to priests' orders, and 30 before he can be a bishop. In America, a member of the senate must be 30, and a member of the hode of representatives 25; this latter was also the period of majority by the civil law. The legal disabilities attaching to the dif ferent stages of minority, or, to speak more correctly, the privileges which the law con fers ou minors for their protection, will be treated of under the different subjects to which they relate. (See INFANT, GUARDIAN, CONSENT, CONTRACT, CRIMP, MAR RIAGE, etc.).