AGARD. Award.
AGE. That period of life at which the law allows persons to do acts or discharge functions which for want of years they were prohibited from doing or undertaking be fore.
The full age of twenty-one years is held to be completed on the 'day preceding the twenty-first anniversary of birth. 1 Black stone, Comm. 464; 1 Sid. 162; 1 Kebl. 589; 1 Salk. 44; 1 Ld. Raym. 84 ; 3 Harr. Del. 557; 4 Dan. Ky. 597.
idales, before fourteen, are said not to be of discretion; at that age they may consent to marriage and choose a guardian. Twenty one years is full age for all private purposes, and they may then exercise their rights as citizens by voting for public officers, and are eligible to all offices, unless otherwise pro vided for in the constitution.
Females, at twelve, arrive at years of dis cretion, and may consent to marriage; at fourteen, they may choose a guardian; and twenty-one, as in males, is full age, when they may exercise all the rights which be long to their sex. The age of puberty for both sexes is fourteen.
In the United States, at twenty-five, a man may be elected a representative in congress; at thirty, a senator; and at thirty-five, he may be chosen president. He is liable to serve in the militia from eighteen to forty five inclusive, unless exempted for some par ticular reason. In England no one can be chosen member of parliament till he has at tained twenty-one years; nor be ordained a priest under the age of twenty-four ; nor made a bishop till he has completed his thir tieth year. The age of serving in the militia is from sixteen to forty-five years. The sove reignty of the realm is assumed at eighteen ; though the law, according to Blackstone, recognizes no minority in the heir to the throne.
In French Law. A person must have ab tamed the age of forty to be a member of the legislative body ; twenty-five, to be a judge of a tribunal de premiere instance; twenty seven, to be its president, or to be judge or clerk of a tour royale ; thirty, to be its presi dent or procureur-general; twenty-five, to be a justice of the peace; thirty, to be judge of a tribunal of commerce, and thirty-five, to be its president; twenty-five, to be a notary pub lic; twenty-one, to be a testamentary witness; thirty, to be a juror. At sixteen, a minor
may devise one-half of his property as if lie were a major. A male cannot contract mar riage till after the eighteenth year, nor a fe male before full fifteen years. At twenty one, both males and females are capable to perform all the acts of civil life. Youillier, Droit, Civ. liv. 1, Intr. n. 188.
In Roman Law. Infancy (infantia) ex tended to the age of seven; the period of childhood (pueritia), which extended from seven to fourteen, was divided into two pe riods; the first, extending from seven to ten and a half, was called the period nearest childhood (cetas infantice proxima); the other, from ten and a half to fourteen, the period nearest puberty (cetas pubertati prox ima); puberty (pubertas) extended from fourteen to eighteen; full puberty extended from eighteen to twenty-five; at twenty-five, the person was major. See Taylor, Civ. Law, 254; Legon El. du Droit Civ. 22.
A statement made in a real action to which an infant is a party, of the fact of infancy and a request that the proceedings may be stayed until the infant becomes of age.
It is now abolished. Stat. 11 Geo. IV. ; 1 Will. IV. c. 37, 10; 1 Lilly, Reg. 54; 3 Blackstone, Comm. 300.