ADOPTION, an act by which any one takes another into his family, owns him for his son, and appoints him his heir. The origin of it is obvious and natural. As the principle of lineal descent, and the influence of pa rental affection, are peculiarly strong, it is reasonable to expect, that those, who have no children, will be solici tous to obtain some object, on whom they may bestow their love and property.
Adoption has, accordingly, in one form or another, ex isted in every age and country. This custom, as it re spected parents procuring children to themselves as their heirs, or to preserve their family from extinction, was practised in the patriarchal times, and afterwards among the Jews. A similar practice seems to have been universally prevalent in the East. The following regu lations arc found in she Gentoo Laws, and the institutes of Menu :—" Ile, who is desirous to adopt a child, must inform the magistrate, and shall perform the jugg, [sa crifice.] and shall give gold and rice to the father of the child, Nvhom he would adopt." " A woman may not adopt a child without her husband's order." "Hu, who has no son, or grandson, or grandson's son, or brother's son, shall adopt a son ; but while he has one, he shall not adopt a second." The last article shows, that, in p.t•ctilar instances, adoption was expressly enjoined.
Menu, in like manner, says—" Ile whom his father, mother with her husband's assent, gives to another afi his son, provided the dome have nee the buy be ul di, same class, and affectionately disposen, is a son gi ven by watcr,i. c. the gilt being colliea d u by the pour ing of water. He, vs ho has no son, may appoint his (laugh ter to raise up a son to him, by saying, tne nra.0 (uld, who shall be north host her in wedlock, shad be mine, for the purpose of performing my funeral obsequies. The son of a man is even as himself; anu as a soh, such is a daughter thus appointed. Tne son of a daughter, appointeu as just mentioned, shall inherit the whole estate of her father, who leaves no son. Between the suns of a son and of a daughter, thus appointed, there is no difference in law." The laws of the Greeks and Romans, respecting adop tion, were still more precise. Eunuchs were not allow ed this privilege, as being incapable of begetting chil dren ; and it was expressly required, that the adopter should be at least eighteen years older than his adop tive son, that there might appear a probability of his be ing the natural father.
By the Greeks it was termed t;io',45, filiation, and was allowed to such as had no issue of their own, exceptiiig to those who were not Y.VVOI ;avian, their own masters ; as slaves, women, madmen, infants, or persons under twen ty years of age. At Athens, foreigners had to be admit ted to the freedom of the city, before they were capable of being adopted. Adoption was consummated by the form of a will, signed and scaled in the presence of the ma gistrate; after which, the person, so adopted, was to be inscribed among the tribe or fraternity, of him who adopted him. Having thus left his own tribe, he was not at liberty to return to it again, till he had begotten a child in his new relation ; but, even in that case, he was not obliged to return to his former parentage, though he had this privilege, if he chose. For the enrolment of adoptions, a particular time was appointed ; viz. the fes tival &cc[;;Arcc. Sir William Jones, in his introduction to the speeches of Isxus, mentions the following express laws of Athens. " Adopted sons shall not devise the property acquired by adoption ; but, if they leave legiti mate sons, they may return to their natural family. If they do not return, the estates shall go to the heirs of the persons who adopted them. The adopted sons, (if there be any,) and the after-born sons to the person who adopted him, shall be coheirs of the estate ; but no adoption by a man, who has legitimate sons then born, shall be valid." On this the learned commentator ob serves, that, both at Athens and at Rome, an adopted son acquired all the rights, both sacred and civil, and succeeded to all the advantages and burdens, of the new family, into which he was introduced ; and was consid ered in every light as a son, by nature born in lawful wedlock. But " an adopted son could not himself adopt another ; he must either have a legitimate son, or the estate, received by adoption, must return to the adopting father's heirs ; for there could not be two adopted sons at the same time." To prevent rash and inconsiderate adoptions, the Lacedxmonians had a law, that they should be transacted, or at least confirmed, in the pre sence of their kings.