CHAPTER XIV.

Of the Private Relations of Master and Servant and of Husband and Wife.

I.

THE private, œconomical, relations of persons, are four 1. master and servant; 2. husband and wife 3. parent and child; 4. guardian and ward.

II.

The first relation may subsist between a master and four species of servants: (for slavery is unknown to our laws) viz. 1. menial servants, who are hired; 2. apprentices, who are bound by in dentures; 3. labourers, who are casually employed; 4. stewards, bailiffs, and factors, who are rather in a ministerial state.

III.

From this relation result divers powers to the master, and emoluments to the servant.

IV.

The master hath a property in the service of his servant; and must be answerable for such acts as the servant does by his express, or implied mand.

V.

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The second private relation is that of marriage;

which includes the reciprocal rights and duties of husband and wife.

VI.

Marriage is duly contracted between persons, 1. consenting; 2. free from canonical impediments, which make it voidable; 3. free also from the civil impediments, of prior marriage, of want of age, of non-consent of parents, &c. where requisite; of want of reason; either of which make it totally void; and must be celebrated by a priest, in due form and place.

VII.

Marriage is dissolved, 1. by death; 2. by divorce in the spiritual court; not a mensâ et thoro only, but a vinculo matrimonii, for canonical cause existing previous to the contract; 3. by act of parliament; as, for adultery.

VIII.

By marriage the husband and wife become one person in law; which unity is the principal foundaion of their respective rights, duties, and disabiliies.

CHAPTER XV.

Of the Private Relations of Parent and Child, and of Guardian and Ward.

I.

THE third, and most universal private relation, is that of parent and child.

11.

Children are, 1. legitimate, or those who are born in lawful wedlock, or within a competent time after; 2. bastards, or those who are not so.

III.

The duties of parents to legitimate children are, 1. maintenance; 2. protection; 3. education.

IV.

The power of parents consists principally in correction, and consent to marriage: both may after. death be delegated by will to a guardian; and the former also, at any time, to a tutor or master.

V.

The duties of legitimate children to parents are obedience, protection, and maintenance.

VI.

The duty of parents to bastards is only that of maintenance.

VII.

The rights of a bastard are such only as he can acquire; for he is incapable of inheriting any thing.

VIII.

The fourth private relation is that of guardian and ward, which is plainly derived from the last; these being, during the continuance of their rela tion, reciprocally subject to the same rights and duties.

IX.

Guardians are of divers sorts: 1. guardians by nature, or the parents; 2. guardians for nurture, assigned by the ecclesiastical courts; 3. guardians in socage, assigned by the common law; 4. guardians by statute, assigned by the father's will: all subject to the superintendence of the court of chancery.

X.

Full age in male or female for all purposes is the age of twenty one years; (different ages being allowed for different purposes) till which age the person is an infant.

XI.

An infant, in respect of his tender years, has various privileges, and various disabilities in law; chiefly with regard to suits, crimes, estates, and

contracts.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of Bodies Politic, or Corporations.

I.

BODIES politic, or corporations, which are artificial persons, are established for preserving in perpetual succession certain rights, which, being conferred on natural persons only, would fail in process of time.

II.

Corporations are, 1. aggregate, consisting of many members; 2. sole, consisting of one person only.

III.

Corporations are also either spiritual, erected to perpetuate the rights of the church; or lay: and the lay are, 1. civil, erected for many temporal purposes; 2. eleemosynary, erected to perpetuate the charity of the founder.

IV.

Corporations can only be erected, and named, by virtue of the king's royal charter.

V.

The powers incident to all corporations are, 1. to maintain perpetual succession; 2. to act in their corporate capacity like an individual; 3. to hold lands, subject to the statutes of mortmain; 4. to have a common seal; 5. to make by-laws; which last power, in spiritual, or eleemosynary corporations, may be executed by the king or the founder.

VI.

The duty of corporations is to answer the ends of their institution.

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VII.

To enforce this duty, all corporations may be visited spiritual corporations by the ordinary; lay corporations by the founder, or his representatives;