were never of age, but ſubject to perpetual guardianſhip[1], unleſs when married, "niſi conveniſſent in manum viri:" and, when that perpetual tutelage wore away in proceſs of time, we find that, in females as well as males, full age was not till twenty five years[2]. Thus, by the conſtitutions of different kingdoms, this period, which is merely arbitrary, and juris poſitivi, is fixed at different times. Scotland agrees with England in this point; (both probably copying from the old Saxon conſtitutions on the continent, which extended the age of minority "ad annum vigeſimum primum, et eo uſque juvenes ſub tutelam reponunt[3]") but in Naples they are of full age at eighteen; in France, with regard to marriage, not till thirty; and in Holland at twenty five.
3. Infants have various privileges, and various diſabilities: but their very diſabilities are privileges; in order to ſecure them from hurting themſelves by their own improvident acts. An infant cannot be ſued but under the protection, and joining the name, of his guardian; for he is to defend him againſt all attacks as well by law as otherwiſe[4]: but he may ſue either by his guardian, or prochein amy, his next friend who is not his guardian. This prochein amy may be any perſon who will undertake the infant's cauſe; and it frequently happens, that an infant, by his prochein amy, inſtitutes a ſuit in equity againſt a fraudulent guardian. In criminal caſes, an infant of the age of fourteen years may be capitally puniſhed for any capital offence[5]: but under the age of ſeven he cannot. The period between ſeven and fourteen is ſubject to much uncertainty: for the infant ſhall, generally ſpeaking, be judged prima facie innocent; yet if he was doli capax, and could diſcern between good and evil at the time of the offence committed, he may be convicted and undergo judgment and execution of death, though he hath not attained to years of puberty
