MARRIAGEABLE AGES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 109, 29 May 1875, Page 9

MARRIAGEABLE AGES.

Reports from Her Majesty's representatives abroad, showing the earliest age at which marriages can be legally solemnised in each of the States of the continent of Europe, have been presented to the House of Commons in pursuance of their address dated June 15, 1874« In Austria the age of discretion, both for males and females, is fourteen, and this period of life must be reached on both sides before a marriage ein be valid. In Hungary, however, the marriage laws are entirely ecclesiastical, and males of the Roman Catholic confession cannot contract matfriages until they have completed their fourteenth year, nor females till they are twelve years of age. The Orthodox Greek Church follows the same rule : but Protestants consider males under the age of eighteen and females under the age of fifteen unable to contrait valid marriages. In Cisleithanio, Jews are subject to the civil law ; but in Hungary there is no restriction as to the age at which they may marry. In Russia, eighteen years for males and sixteen for females are the "periods of life at which marriage may be legally contracted. In Turkey there is no general law on the subject of marriageable ages. The Italian law fixes eighteen years for males and fifteen years for females as the earliest time of life at which marriages may be solemnised. Prussia, by the statute of December, 1872, sanctions marriage in the case of' males on the completion of their eighteenth year, and the fourteenth year in the case of females, no exception betog allowed to these provisions. The law in France states the earliest age at which marriages can be contracted to be eighteen years in the case of males and fifteen in the case of females, but powers of dispensation are reserved by the code. Under the old Monarchy, boys could marry at the age of fourteen and girls at twelve, as under ancient Roman and even Athenian law. The Belgian code is the same as the French in determining the ages of eighteen and fifteen severally as those at which men and women may marry, and in leaving a right of dispensation. Bavaria has four sets of laws on the sub j ect. Under the ' ' Landrecht " the lawful age for males is fourteen and for females twelve. In the district in which the " G-emeines Recht " prevails the limits of age are the same. The more advanced ages of eighteen for males and fifteen for females are in those parts of Bavaria in which the Pr.ssian "Landrecht" rules; and in those districts which acknowledge the French " Code Civile " the age for males is eighteen and for females fifteen, as in France and Belgium. Leaving to the Minister of Justice the faculty of granting a dispensation, the law in Denmark fixes the age of twenty for a man and sixteen for the girl as the earliest at which persons can marry. In Greece, males cannot marry before fourteen yeai s of age nor f emalfcs before twelve ; while in the lonian Islands, sixteen and fourteen years are respectively the legal ages. A bill lias been, or is about to be introduced into the Athenian Chamber, appointing fifteen of the earliest age for males and twelve for females. In Hesse Darmstadt and Baden, tho standard of marriageable ages is curiously high. The consent of parents is necessary in the case of men until they have completed their twenty-fifth year; in that of women until they are twenty-one. In the event of parents refusing the consent," l'espectful summonses can be made by the children, and the laiv requires three such summonses from men who have not attained their thirtieth year, and women who are not twenty-five years of age, and two summonses only after that age. The earliest age ab which the law of Baden, under any conditions, allows the population to marry is eighteen years for men and fifteen for girls. The completion of eighteen years by males and sixteen by females is necessary for valid marriage in the Netherlands. In Saxe Cobui'g Gotha no mole is permitted to marry before ho has attained his twenty-first year. Cases occur where exceptions are made, namely, when the parents of a young man are from illness or age no longer capable of managing a farm or any other Dimness, and it becomes necessary that the wife should assist in the household. Such exceptions, however, can only be granted by the Government, to whom the petitioner must apply. As regards females, all that is necessary is that at tho age of fourteen years they should be confirmed before leaving school. It seldom happens that a girl marries before her seventeenth year. By the law of June, 1870, the legal ages of mai* riage in Spain are fourteen for male and twelve for females. It is just tlio same in Portugal, with this qualification, thab minors — that is, persons of either sex under twenty-one years of aga — cannot con* tract marriage without the consent of their parents. In Wurtemburg no subject, male or female, can bo legally mame.l, unless of the full age of twenty-one years, without the consent of parents, and in tho case of males, a special dispensation from the administrative authorities. This dispensation is granted only under exceptional circumstances, and the requirements of military service alone render it practically impossible in most cases for any man to marry before ho is of age. The marriageable age for females is fixed for Wurtemburg by-law at the completion of the fourteenth year, aud under that ago no marriage can be legally solemnised. The principle which underlies the provision of the law in contract minors are legally incompetent to conclude, whereas females are supposed to acquire majority by marriage. In Saxony, the legal age for tho marriage of males is eighteen, for females sixteen years. According to the amended paragraph of the new German Civil Marriage Bill the ages would be respectively twenty and sixteen years, instead of eighteen and fourteen as in the draft of the Bill. In Roumania the legal age for marriage is eighteen years in the case of males and fifteen in that of femalesi There is much variation of tho marriage law in -Switzerland as to the ages of contracting parties, which in some cantons is as high as twenty years for males and seventeen for females, and in ofchex'3 as low as fourteen for males and twelve for females. Consent of parents is also required up to twenty-five years in Uuri, in SchafEhsuse, in Appenzell, inTessin, and in G-eueva. — 'Home News.'

The Catholics of Kiuaberly (South African Diamond Fields) intend to forward, for presentation to tho Pope, sixteen picked diamonds, as a token of their veneration and esteem. The valuable parcel will be accompanied with an address, expressive of their deep attachment to his Holinessas Head of the Church.